ODST Feet First into Hell: Rory's story
by Altor of Chaos
Summary: The UNSC is in trouble. The Covenant War left lines thin. Now the rebel threat is back and worse than ever before. The Sequel Is out! (Editing in progress.)
1. Chapter 1

"Rory you're going to be late for school," I hear my mother yell. I sigh and get up I hate mornings. I walk over to my dresser rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, and I look into the mirror. My dark blond hair is messed up from sleep and my usually bright green eyes are dark and tried. I open a drawer and pull a folded green t shirt I pull off the black shirt I was wearing and pull to new one over my head. As I walk out of my bed room my cell phone goes off. It is a text from one of my best friends Phil saying,

'Rory sorry but I can't give you a ride to school today.'

That's great I should just go back to bed. I go to the bathroom and take care of my business I wash my hands and start to brush my teeth after that I comb my hair down and look in the mirror I look good. My hair is flat my eyes are bright and lean and muscular frame isn't sagging from sleep. I look down and slap myself in the head I am still wear my pj pants I run back in my room and kick them off and I get my jeans on. I pull out my phone and text Tyler, another one of my best friends

'Yo, can you give me a ride to school?' a minute later

'Yeah I be there in a sec.'

"Later mom," I yell as I walk out the front door

"Love you," She calls back

Tyler pulls up and I walk over to his car and get in. "What's up man?" I ask. Tyler has light blond hair and blue eyes and is scary skinny.

"Nothing much, let's go" He says and I close my door and he drives to school.

We just make it to school and I am running to try and get to my math class on time. I bolt through the hallways. Shit, shit, shit, I'm never going to make. I see the door and I am almost there. I make it to the door and open it. Just the bell goes off. "Just in time Rory" My teacher Mrs. Dimmers says I flash her a smile and say,

"I made it right ON time" I take my sit next to Joe and pull on my laptop. I put my laptop on the desk. Joe has both brown eyes and hair pretty much average.

"Cutting it close huh Rory?" He asks

"You know me I like making a good entrance." He laughs and my teacher glares at us. I turn on my laptop and open up my math section. The class drags by every time Joe and I try and talk my teacher stares at us. I stare at my laptop screen this is so boring I hate math.

"Rory!" My teacher knows I am not paying attention. "What's the answer for number seven?"

"Crap," whisper to Joe. He smirks. "Uh... x ... equals five point one?" I pretty much ask. When the class laughs I know I am way off.

"Mr. Donahue we aren't doing algebra anymore it would be hard for you to pass the final tomorrow if you don't know that." God damn Mrs. Dimmers she always know when I am not paying attention. The bell rings I put my stuff in my bag and walk out the door.

"Rory Joe," Phil calls out "Over here" Phil is easy to spot because \he stands head shoulders over the crowd, He is also very lanky due to that. We walk to him Tyler is already there. We lucked out this year and have the same free period. Too bad it is the second one but whatever. We got to our usual spot, a class that is empty on this period. We sat down at some desks "I hate her," I find myself saying

"Who," Phil and Tyler ask at the same time Joe laughs.

"Mrs. Dimmers made him look like an idiot," Tyler and Phil laugh, I feel my face getting red at my friends insults.

"Oh well we are almost done senior year!" I yell out they woo and cheer in agreement.

"Then what?" Tyler asks. We all long around wondering what our futures hold.

"I know what I am doing," I say with pride.

"We all know you are join the UNSC Marine corps" Joe says.

"I don't think you should, I mean with the Covenant destroying all the colonies and all." Joe mutters.

"Someone has to do and it is going to be me." I say they all don't want me to go.

"What if you die?" Phil asks God bless him for being so forward.

"I don't think about that shit." I say. "Can't focus on the bad thing in life."

"I don't know why you would put yourself in the position." Tyler says

"Because I want to serve." I reply. "Now let's drop it!" I yell. That shut them up.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by before I know if Tyler drops me off and I am walking inside my house."Rory, what's up bro," My brother Sam says.

"Nothing how's it going Sam?" I ask.

"I am almost done this dumb ass report," I fall down on to a sofa and groan "Rough day?"

"Math final tomorrow," I complain.

"Ouch," I turn on the T.V. the report at the bottom of the screen says.

"BREAKING NEWS ANOTHER COLONY FALLS TO COVENANT."

"Prometheus falls leaving millions dead and even more wounded," The reporter says.

"Shit," I sigh out it isn't really shocking however with whats been going on.

"Yeah I heard about that this morning," Sam says as he walks to the sofa.

"We can't stop them it seems."

"Yeah it looks that way huh?" He says "They are lucky I am in college and I didn't sign up!"

"You wish," I laugh

"Come on I would mess those covenant bitches up."

"Okay," I laugh again. "Wait why are you home and not a your dorm?"

"Well that's a long short I ran out food and and clothes. Well, maybe it isn't long but whatever." I laugh. He walks back to the table in the kitchen I change the channel and watch something else. Then I pull out my laptop and start looking over some math notes. I barely understand this shit and I have the final tomorrow this isn't good I have a bad feeling about this. My mom walks into the room.

"Sam what are you doing here?" She asks

"Long Story." I start laughing and my mom looks at him funny.

"Did you run out of food again?"

"OK maybe ..." He looks down and sighs. I look at my laptop and close the lid I'll wing it. I get up tell my mom I am going out for a bit and walk outside the front door. I call Morgan my real best friend she lives next door and has been my friend for years.

"Hello." Morgan answers.

"What's up Morgan?" I ask.

"Studding for finals why?"

"Cause I got bored of studding and want to know if you wanted to hang out."

"Sorry my dad won't let me."

"OK well later then." I hang up my phone when she says good bye. I walk down to the park and look around it is nice here a breeze blows through the trees I lay down on the ground and close my eyes. Why is the Covenant attacking us why should, why we are living in fear wondering if one day they will find Earth I hate it and that's why I will stop them. So one day humans won't have to worry about be destroyed. After awhile I get up and head home. Big dreams for a young kid. When I get home supper is ready.

"Rory." My dad says and looks at me.

"What's up?"

"I hear you are still thing about joining the corps."

"Yeah and?"

"Why, you know you could die right?"

"I know it can happen."

"You are an idiot," He says dryly. .

"So I have be told." I laugh.

"You have to much of me in you."

"I have been told that too."

"OK smart guy what don't you know."

"Who are you kidding I know everything"

"Oh yeah? Is that's why you are not studding?"

"I think I should do that." I say with a nervous laugh.

XxXxXxXx

The next day I woke on time and got ready for school. I text Phil. 'Yo man are you picking me up today?' Just then I hear a honk outside. I laugh and ran out the door. "What's up Phil?" I ask.

"Nothing we have to move we need to pick Joe on the way to school." He says to me I nod and get in the car.

"We can't be late today I have a final first thing," I remind Phil.

"I know." Joe's house is close by so it shouldn't be a problem but still I don't want to be late. But, the way Phil drives it\ wouldn't be a problem if he didn't even live close. As we speed across the city I can't help remember all the memories I have here when I first meet my friends how I spent my summer days. It is sad but all this is in danger I that is why I am going to join the UNSC and fight my friends can run and hide but I will not falter in my path. As I am thinking this we pull up to Joe's house he gets into the back of the car.

"Hey guys" Joe says to us. We greet him he Phil lays on the gas. "We are going to be late," I hear Joe say over the roar of the engine.

"No we won't be." Phil says as he speeds up more. At this point I am grabbing the Oh shit handle. As we pull into the schools parking lot I let go of the handle and yawn. "No big deal," Phil laughs. I turn around and see that Joe is as white as a ghost and I start laughing to.

"Nice one guys" Joe says sarcastically.

"I thought so," I say to him. We get out of the car and walk in to school. We all go our different ways and I head to my math class. I should have study more, but oh well. I walk to the door of the class and hear.

"Hey Rory you loser," I know that voice and I turn around.

"I thought you had dropped out by now Jack," I say back calmly. He gets right up in my face. Jack and I have lots of problems ever since freshman year. We have been in at least seven fights over the years. He is a jackass to be honest.

"You ready for me now pussy" He shoves me backwards.

"I am not that way," I laugh. That piss him off and that is his greatest flaw. He swings at me head fist closed. I simply step back "Now now don't let me get under your skin like that." He throws another punch at my head which I start to dodge but I realize my back is up against the wall so when I back up I hit the wall. His fist connects with my jaw.

"You like that bitch!" He yells. By now a crowd of people have showed up to watch. Before I can recover he hits me again in the face. "Come on that the best you got!" I hear him shouting . I drop my shoulder down and spear him right in the gut driving the wind out of him. As he is gasping for air I punch him in the face. He jumps back but not fast enough and my fist hits him right under his left eye. As he gets back into a fight position he kicks me right in the knee. This isn't looking good for me and it gets even worse when he pulls back his right arm and clocks me right in the mouth. I am seeing double now and I am losing badly.

"Alright enough messing around," I mutter. I throw my left arm at his face and when he goes to block it I aim my right arm for the middle of his chest. I connect as he doubles over then I grab his head with both my hand and push it down to my knee as I am rising my knee up. As soon as I hit that I know he is out cold and I know I have to get out of here before I get in trouble. I slip into the crowd and into my math class. Joe who had to go to his locker missed all of this and walked into the room.

"What the hell is going on out there?" He asks me. I look at him and smile.

"Let's say I had a run in with Jack and well he is kind of knocked out." He walks to me and pats me on the back.

"Rory you're a beast. He is at least three inches tall than you," He says.

"I got lucky again," I laugh and he joins in the I remember my final. "I am going to fail this test" I mutter. Ms. Dimmers walks in and yells "OK sit down and shut up it is final time!"

After the final which I did pretty bad on. It is our free period Phil and Tyler are being updated on what happened between me and Jack. I told Joe all the details on the way over here. After they settle down I lay down on a desk with my legs sticking off the end. I sigh, I am happy with my life right now why does time have to keep moving. I close my eyes and drift off to sleep. I am woken suddenly and rudely but Tyler.

"Time to go to class Rory," I make out as I shake the sleep from my eyes. I get up and stretch damn I didn't want to wake up. I walk out the door and head to my next class I see people looking at me I guess word gets around quick. I walk into my class and realize that this is going to be a long day.

After school that day I walk into my house and there is Sam "Why are you still here?" I ask

He turns to me and says.

"I'm still out of food at my dorm." I laugh and shake my head.

"How are you ever going to make it on your own?"

"I don't know," At least he is honest. I throw down my bag and go to my room and pull out my cell. I call Morgan. "Hello Morgan." I say.

"Rory! We need to hang out right now!" She says

"Alright I will be right over." I say and walk out the to the kitchen "Later," I say to Sam.

"Whatever," He calls back. I walk across my lawn to Morgan's house and knock on the door. Her dad opens the door.

"Rory come in," I follow him in. "Morgan is up stairs." I

"I hear you have been fighting again." I nod. "Well stop it. It's back enough when you say you joining the Marines but getting into fights at school Rory stop making me worry about you. I smile and say OK. "Is that all you have to say?" She asks.

"Sorry but you don't have to worry about me I am a big boy now," I say.

"You are my best friend I can't help it," She hugs and I hug back.

XxXxXxXx

The next few days go by in a blur. Now it is Friday last day for us and we are in our free period class room even though it isn't second period. We reasoned that it is the last day of school and the school and go to hell for all we care. So we are skipping. I am laying down on a desk and I am resting my eyes. Two more days till graduation and then I sign up and ship out. I am nervous I mean who wouldn't be. Well it doesn't matter now only a few more days now. When I sit up and open my eyes my friends are looking at me funny. "What's up guys?"I ask.

"Are you really going to join?" They all ask at the same time. I look at them so many good memories over the years and I am leaving them. It really is a hard choice.

"Yes," I breath out. "There is no changing my mind now" I smile "Come on guys it IS OUR LAST DAY OF HIGHSCHOOL don't be so down." They just shake their hands. Whatever I put my head down and lay there thinking about my future. I chose what to do and where to go and what do I do I throw myself into harm's way. I laugh silently and shake my head I am crazy. And so they day goes on by we relax in there for the day and I am in Tyler's car on my way home.

"Why?" He asks. I know what he is talking about but I act dumb.

"What?"

"Why are you going to join the Marines?"

"Because man I have to they need everyone one they can get and we aren't fighting against some rebels now like my dad did. But we are fighting against an overwhelming force. We are fighting to survive! If the Covenant ever finds Earth we are doomed we won't be able to stop them. That is why because the need people to step up and stop them." This is the most I have ever talked about it to one of my friends. I expect him to be pissed off to tell me that's bullshit but he doesn't.

"OK I can see that man. Well I don't want you to go but you are not changing your mind so there is nothing I can do about it so just don't die."

"Alright I can do that" I say as he pulls up to my house. "Later" I say as I leave the car he drives off and I walk home expecting Sam to be sitting there in the kitchen however he isn't. I walk to my parents room they aren't home I am here alone. Usually that doesn't bother me but today it does I don't know why but it does. I sigh and walk outside, looking around. I hate this feeling I have in the pit of my stomach the one that makes me feel like everything isn't going to be OK. I shrug the feeling of and go for a walk. I wonder around the streets I grow up in and when it gets late I start home. When I get there my parents and Sam for some reason are home. "Hey everyone," I sit down at the table. My mother is severing food and passes me a plate of food.

"Rory after graduation you are enlisting right?" My dad asks.

"That's the plan" I say and start eating.

"OK I am going with you," That surprises me I didn't think he wanted me to join up but I guess not.

"Alright, " I say and I focus on my plate of food.

I look in the mirror I see a person wear a blue gown staring back. This gown is just dumb I don't see why we have to wear it. Only half hour in till I am to be to grad. Everything is moving so quickly I can't stand it much longer. I hear a knock on my door. "Rory you almost ready to go?" I hear my mom ask.

"Yeah I am ready let's do this," I say as I walk out of my room and leave my house. My mom follows me and gets into her car. I get in the passengers sit and we are heading to my school for the last time. I get there right on time shockingly and I take my place in the crowd of blue and gold our school colors. Then one by one I see my classmates walk across the stage my heart is racing now and I can't believe my high school career is over and I am enlisting. My thoughts take over and student after student walks across the stage. Then I hear it.

"RORY DONAHUE," My heart skips a beat and I start forward. I hear a roar of cheers. Being the school's star Middle Line Backer on the football team does that. I reach the principal and grab the diploma shake his hand and walk off the stage. I look around the place is packed I smile. This is way I am fighting for these people. After that I pretty much doze in a seat. I don't care about the rest of the seniors I just want to get out of this freaking gown.

When it is done I take picture after picture with family, with friends,and for some reason with strangers. It takes so long just to get outside and to Phil's car. We are going out to celebrate and my family is heading home. Phil, Tyler, and Joe meet at his car

"Shotgun," I call. Tyler and Joe shake their heads.

"So things never change," Tyler says

"What's that mean Ty," I ask mockingly.

"See you just proved my point." We laugh and hop into Phil's car. We head out to a restaurant and Phil as always makes good time ,but breaks the speed limit a bit. We get there and I hear Tyler say "Great look who is here," I look around and see him.

"Shit what's Jack doing here?" I ask. Phil shakes his head.

"Forget him we are here to have a good time and damn it we will." I agree and we sit in a booth. When the waitress comes over I order a coke and a cheeseburger and I look around Jack has seen us great. He gets up walks over to our table. "Rory." Jack says.

"Jack." I reply getting ready for a fight.

"Look man I am sorry about everything in high school," What did he just say?

"Uh sure I… me too." He reaches out his hand I shake it.

"Well I just need to say that because we might be in boot camp together."

"You're joining the Marines?" I ask surprised.

"Yeah well later man." He walks away.

"Wow," Joe says "I never saw that coming." We all agree with him. After food I go home and lay down. Tomorrow I sign up and then I leave to boot camp.

The next morning I wake early and I eat some cereal for breakfast. I yawn while I eat I hear footsteps I look up to see my dad. "When are we going?" He asks me.

"After this I guess." I said and finish up breakfast and get ready. We drive to the recruiter and walk into the building. A Staff Sergeant greets us and leads us to his desk.

"What's your name son?" He asks me.

"Rory Donahue sir," I answer.

"What can I do for you Rory?"

"I am here to sign up and join the Marines sir." After a long and boring paper work, I am enlisted for good now no turning around. We get home my dad shakes my hand.

"Son I have never been more proud of you, just please be careful." He says.

"Thanks dad and don't worry I will be fine." I say when my mom comes flying out of her room and runs and hugs me.

"Be careful if you die I will kill!" I laugh hug her mothers are crazy. I call my friends and they decide to throw a going away party for me in a week when I leave. After all that I walk outside and across my lawn to Morgan's. I knock on the door and she answers it.

"Rory you know... I just want to tell you that. I, well it's hard to say. I just to let you know that-" She stops talk and kisses me. She pulls back. "I couldn't find the right words."

"Well I'm not complaining. And hey listen I-" I kisses her. After a few seconds I pull back. "I guess I couldn't find the right words ether."

XxXxXxXx

This is my last night before boot camp and I am getting nervous now. This week has gone by to quickly for my liking. I am lying in my bed in is around eight in the morning and I just woke up. There is a going away party for me tonight it is my own going away party and I don't feel like going. I roll out of bed and walk to the kitchen. My mom is there and she runs up to me and hugs me. I see tears in her eyes I look away and close my eyes. Why does this have to be so hard? I hug her back then push her of lightly.

"Mom I need to get something to eat so if you don't mind can you get off?" I ask. She laughs and pulls away and wipes her eyes.

"So what do you want?" She asks.

"It is OK I can get it myself," I say and get a bagel from the bread box. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and put the bagel in the toaster. I look outside my window and see Phil's car pull up. I walk to the door and open it. Then Phil, Tyler, and Joe get out. "What's up guys?"

"Rory it is your last day before you ship out, so we need to hang out." Tyler says, I laugh.

"We have hung out all week I need to spend some time to myself you know?"

"Lair you just want to spend time with Morgan," Joe says.

"And that is a bad thing?" I ask.

"No but –"I cut Joe off.

"That's right. Sorry guys but I will see you tonight at five for the party now later."

"Later Rory," They all say. I feel bad doing that but it is true I haven't had five minutes to myself lately. I walk back to the toaster and garb my now ready bagel and put butter on it. I take a bite and walk into my living room to turn on my T.V. to check the news. The news is about the war always but I want to see if anything big has happened. After a few minutes of listening to survivor's stories I turn of the TV. I am done breakfast and I wake into the bathroom to brush my teeth. After I finish I lay done and doze off.

After my nap I head over to Morgan's house. I knock on the door and her dad answers. He lets me in and I head to her room. "Hey Morgan," I say and she walks up to me and hugs me. "Come on lets go."

"Where are you taking me,"She asks. I laugh and grab her hand.

"That's a surprise and I don't want to ruin the fun." We walk out of her house and start walking through the city. We get to the park where we first meet twelve years ago. She smiles and I walk her to the hill we first spoke to each other.

"You remembered after all these years."

"Of course I did how could I forget?" I kiss her and I wish I told her how I felt a long time ago so that we could have had more time together. I pull away and sit down she sits next to me. I put my arm around her and smile.

"I wish you didn't have to go." She says quietly.

"I know but you know I have to."

"I know but I want you stay with me."

"I wish that to but I have to do this." I grip her tighter and she rests her head on my shoulder. "I really do love you. And I would never do anything to hurt you. You know that right?" She nods. I smile content with my life as it is right now but I know I have to leave tomorrow and after that my life is going to be thrown into a fight for survival. We sit there talking about the past for hours It is almost time for my party and we get up and go home. I walk into my house and go to my room and get dress for the party. I am wear a nice collared shirt and dress pants. I look in the mirror I still look good. I look out my window and see my family starting to show up. This is going to suck. I wait in my room in till I see Phil's car pull up. By that time a lot of my family has shown up and I try to walk through the room but I get stopped. It is my Aunt and Uncle and this just starts a chain reaction of people walking up to me and either shaking my hand or hugging me sometimes both. After that is all done I sigh that took a good ten minutes. I walk over to my friends.

"Yo, what's up guys?" I ask.

"This really awkward Rory," Joe says. "I mean I have never even meet most of this people."

"Yeah I know it is my going away party and it is even awkward for me," I laugh and sit down on my couch.

"I can't believe you are leaving tomorrow." Phil says.

"I know it feels so weird knowing that in a few days my life will be completely different."

We sit there and talk about our futures and after college or in my case the Marines. Phil is going to a mechanic after college like his dad. Tyler is going to be a writer for a newspaper like he was at our high school. Joe wants to be a doctor. I tell them I need to focus on the Marines if I want to have a future they didn't find it as funny as I did.

As the party dies down and some people go home, I feel at easy kinda like the calm before the storm. Morgan isn't here I don't know why but I don't blame her. She must be really upset and I feel bad for doing this to her. I relax on my couch after another speech from a family member telling everyone about a funny memory they have about me usually they are pretty embarrassing. I stretch my legs out and wave goodbye to my friends Phil had to go home and he drives them everywhere so they had to go to. I rub my eyes it has been a long day. I start to doze on the couch and before I know I wake up in my room a few hours later. Great I missed the end of my own party. I get up and look at the clock it is two in the morning I go back to bed and fall asleep.

The next morning I grab my bags and I wake up my parents. They get ready to go as do I. I wear casual clothes and I put my bags in their car. While I am outside I walk over to Morgan's house. She lets me in and I ask her if she wants to go to the station with me and my parents. She agrees and she goes and gets ready. It takes another half hour to get everything ready to go but then we start off to the station. We get there and I get my ticket from a booth and I am on the platform with my parents and Morgan. Both my mom and Morgan are almost crying. I hug my mom then Morgan then even my dad. "Just be careful Rory" My mom says.

"I always am" I say then with one final goodbye I get on the train.


	2. Chapter 2

I look in the mirror I can barely recognize myself anymore. My hair has been buzzed and my face is hardened. I am half way in to boot camp and things are going good.

"LINE UP YOU MAGGOTS!" I hear the sarge yell. I rush from the bathroom and race to my bunk. "Now then tomorrow we will be doing survival training but pack only the bare minimum. You will be in groups of 3. Team 1 James, Fred, and Bob. I listened for my name and finally. Team 6 Rory, Jack, and Matt. After that I and the rest of team 6 met up.

"Rory good to see you again." Jack says to me.

"Yeah you too. I can't believe we have made it this far" I say to Jack. He and I have gotten close in boot camp so I am pretty happy about this but I don't know Matt that well.

"Ok guys we can do this" Matt says. Matt is loud and, well the sarge is always saying that he isn't cut out for this job but I have faith in him.

"Oh Yeah, Maggots I forgot to you the rules your team is being dropped into the wilderness with a map of the area and will have to find the LZ The first team there will be rewarded nicely. But the last team … well try not to be the last team." He says as he walks away laughing. The barracks that weas just full of noise and eagerness has die down and there is silence.

"Too bad for you guys Team 6 is going to be coming in first" I yell out and I see Jack smile and agree. "OORAH!" Just like that the barracks is full of life again. All the teams are bragging and now some are even making bets. I laugh and put my pack together. That night I sleep like a baby and before I know it I am on a pelican drop ship heading for team 6's drop zone.

"NOW GO TEAM 6!" I hear the Sarge yell over the sound made by the drop ship. I run to the end of the ramp on the drop ship and look down. It is a good 15 feet off the ground but, I take a breath and jump down. The jump goes by in slow motion and I feel my knees buckle as I hit the ground.

"Shit that hurts," I say but I get up off the ground and I look around. All I can see is trees and more trees. I reach into my pocket as I hear Jack and Matt fall to the ground and the drop ship fly off. I pull out the map and put in on the ground. "Ok here we are here and we have to get there. " I say pointing to places on the map. "That is easy we can do this in 3 days easy!" I say "Ok team 6 let's move out!"

XxXxXxXxXx

Day 2 it is about noon and we are making great progress. I check the map again just to be safe and Jack and Matt go on to scout ahead. I put the map away and I run to catch up to them. Then I feel my feet slip from under me. "SHIT" I yell I start to roll down a very steep hill. I reach out, grabbing a weak little sapling I stop myself. "Damn it I messed up." I say out loud. I look behind me, and my heart drops. There is a cliff with a 100 foot drop right behind me. "Jack! Matt!" I yell out "I need help here!"

"Where are you Rory?" I hear from the top of the hill I fell down.

"Down here be careful the hill is steep." I call out. Then my heart stops as I hear something roll down that hill "MATT NO" I yell and reach out and grab his arm. "DAMN IT" I grab Matt but he is off the edge and I can barely hold on to him with all his equipment on. "Jack don't fall throw a rope down here will ya?" I ask and try my hardest to hold on to the sapling and Matt.

"Crap I can't hold on Rory. " I hear Matt say.

"No you can do this we are Marines damn it, no freaking hill is going to be the end of us!" I say but I don't believe I can hold both of us up any longer.

"Rory where the hell is that rope?" Jack asks me.

"Shit, I down know. Check your bag." I say gritting my teeth.

"You can't hold both of us up, let me go."

"No way, never I won't do that, I can't do that!" I manage to say. I feel our grips slipping, and then there is no weight on my arm. "NO, NO DAMNIT!" I yell "MATT!" I look over to see him falling fast to the ground. Then a thud, and I look away and I see a rope fall down next to me I grab it. And I pull myself up to level ground. I am breathing heavy and I feel my eyes getting wet. "Matt no I… this is my fault if I had not slipped he wouldn't be dead" I say to myself. "Damn it, Damn it" Jack walks over to me and pulls me to my feet.

"Rory come on we still have a mission to complete."

"It is a training mission no one was going to die." I say and I rub eyes.

"He knew what he was getting into when he enlisted damn it, so let's go!" Jack yells at me. I nod and follow him.

Over the next few hours we stay quiet then I hear another team. "Team 6," I hear James yell. "Wait where is Matt?"

"He … He is dead" I say. Their faces show shock

"How?" they all ask.

"He fell from a cliff" Jack says in a monotone. I look away, he made sure he didn't say why he fell. He is protecting me but why? "Well we have mission to complete first so let's go now Rory" Jacks says and I feel energy flow into my limbs.

"Oorah" I whisper and Jack and I bolt towards the LZ which is only a 1000 meters away.

For the next few minutes Jack and I sprint towards the LZ my body can't take much more of this and neither can his, but team 1 is still right behind us. And we are not going to lose now! I see the red smoke that is the LZ "It's right there Jack" I say through pants. I look over to see him fall. I run to him and pick him up and put him on my back and I start running again. I collapse at the red smoke breathing so heavy and I yell out "What did I say team 6 is here first!" Then I remember Matt and how he died and I break down.

XxXxXxXx

The drop ship arrives the next day and Jack and I are summoned to our CO's office.

"Lt. Bosd" Jack and I salute.

"At easy recruits," He says Jack and I relax. "How did private Matt Stoneman died?"

"Sir he fell from a cliff trying to save me."

"Why did you need saving Private?" He asks me.

"Sir I was rushing and I slipped down a steep hill then I called out for help, and I tried to warn Private Stoneman. But he already slipped however, I caught him and Jack was looking for a rope. But I couldn't hold on long because of all his equipment and our grips slipped and he fell to his death sir." I recount what happened to Lt. Bosd.

"I see well I don't see either of you at fault and we need every soldier we can get so get back to your barracks." We salute and head back. When we arrive there The Sarge follows right behind us.

"Alright maggots gear up this is not a drill you all just graduated boot camp due to a Covenant attack on an inner colony so Let's move out!"

XxXxXxXxXx

The next few days are the worst of my young life I am stilling thinking about Matt and about this is it I am going into war and I am not ready for it. We are on A UNCS ship I don't know the name because we got on it and left for the colony. We are going to get their tomorrow and I am nervous and scared. Jack and I are sitting together in a café room and talking about the fight tomorrow. "What do you thing it is going to be like" I ask Jack.

"Hell" I agree and we decide it is a good Idea to get a good night's sleep and we turn in for the night. However, sleep doesn't come easy. I keep seeing elites charging at me in my dreams. I see myself killed every time I close my eyes. I keeps me up just about the entire night.

XxXxXxXxXx

"Wake up Rory," Jack says to me. I open my eyes and sit up. Then I hear on the intercom.

"UNSC Marines get to your assigned Pelican Drop Ships." The message plays over and over. I get up put on my body armor and helmet then garb my gear, and MA5C assault rifle. I look at Jack who is ready to go.

"Let's do this shit," I say. He nods and we walk out of the barrack. It takes a few minutes to find our assigned drop ship, but eventually we figure it out. The rest of our squad is already there. We sit on the bench and wait for the launch. I look around I see everyone as scared as I am. We didn't even finish boot camp, we aren't ready for this. But here we are a few minutes from hell.

I close my eyes I think back to everything I told everyone. Those aren't going to be empty words I will not die and I will kill every single Covenant alien bitch just to prove it! "We got this, they aren't going to stand a chance," I say and I look around determined. I see that some of the others are relaxing a bit. The pilot yells back,

"We are launching in 3 … 2 … 1" I feel the pelican say to lift off and start its course to the planet. I can't hear anything the pelican is too loud, but it isn't going to be long in till we are on the ground fighting. I smile this is it I get to prove myself.

"Remember your training and we will make it out of this alive," I can bare hear from my sarge as he yells. After a few minutes the pelican start to slow and the back opens. It comes to a stop and I'm the first in line jump out. I roll when I hit the ground and pull my assault to a position where I can fire it. Then the rest of my squad jumps down. "Men gather round," The sarge says. "Ok the mission is to protect this city to the south," He says pointing to it. It is a few kilometers away."Now the enemy's numbers are unknown, and we only have a few hundred marines here. I have a feeling we will be greatly outnumbered. Now Rory you see that hill over there." I nod." Good take a few guys and get it."

"Jack, James, Kasey and Dom let's go." They nod and follow me. As we run to the hill I get a feeling that we might just die here but I push on. We get to the top and we dig fox holes on the top of the hill. We have 360 degree view and there isn't much other high ground so this is a great spot. Then I see the Covenant drop ship only a hundred meters away. "12 o clock drop ship, Kasey, grab the rocket launcher."

He grabs the rocket launcher and fires both of it rounds hitting the ship both times. However, the ship didn't go down but the gun had been disabled. Then, I see grunts pile out of the drop ship there has to be at least thirty!

"FIRE AT WILL!" I yell as I open fire. The grunts run right at us they don't seem to care about each other. I rip into a grunt's head with my bullets and it falls. The grunts are at the base of the hill now and I take other three down. Over half of the grunts are dead now but the throw plasma grenades at the fox hole all of them miss us but then the start to fire their plasma pistols. I hear Dom cry out it pain as he gets hit in the side with plasma. I throw a grenade in the middle of the mass of charging grunts. The grenade goes off and kills 5 grunts I reload my assault rifle and start to fire again.

The rest of the grunts die without much hassle and I look behind me to the rest of the squad they are in combat with grunts and jackals. I hear Dom. "Shit this hurts man," I look over he is burned badly from the plasma.

"Suck it up you will live," Jack says. I agree and I look back towards the now dead grunts. Damn that wasn't too bad. Over the next few hours they send wave after wave against us but we hold the line.

"Dom, how are you holding up?" I ask.

"I have been better but it doesn't hurt much anymore."

"Good to know." I say and look at the battlefield. This is bad we are running low on ammo and sarge's group isn't going to last much longer. "Sarge, how is it going over there?" I ask over the radio.

"Little bastard are hitting us hard but we are holding on." I hear in my helmet. I see another drop ship heading our way.

"Get ready guys" I yell and we wait for the covenant to get out. "Shit those aren't grunts" I say as I see brutes hoping out of the ship and even one with a weird hammer thing. We unload our assault rifles into their group. They push through because of their armor. I throw two grenades into the group and the armor of some of them breaks off. "Focus on the armor less ones!" I yell. We take down most of them but they are now at the top of the hit and we fall back. I run down the hill I see the hammer brute swing at Jack. Wham! "What the hell was that?" I yell and see Jack flying through the air. "Focus on him!" I turn around and unload the last of my ammo into his side. He keeps run at me. Kasey, James, and Dom are still fighting the normal brutes and are getting messed up. I look at the brute who is charging me and I run at. "EAT THIS!" I yell and tackle him but he grabs me mid air and laugh as he throws me a few feet away. Shit this is bad I grab my empty assault rifle and throw it at him. He hits it away with his hammer and runs at me again. I pull out my knife and get ready to jump out of his way. The brute jumps and swings his hammer at me and I jump out of the way but I get hit by the shockwave. And I crash to the ground, I get up and I rush him. I am almost out of energy. I jump on his back because he didn't recover yet from his swing. I stab my knife into his neck over and over in till he finally falls.

I look at the now dead brute and the over to Jack motionless body. "No Jack damn it." I says whisper. I grab his dog tag and I look around brutes are pounding sarge's lines but it looks like the can hold for now however Kasey and Dom are in trouble. I don't see James anymore. They are fighting close range with brutes which is a bad idea not o mention they are out number by ten brutes. I look to the hammer the brute was running around with and I run over to it and pick it up. This thing weights a ton but whatever I run back to the top of the hill.

"Get down" I yell and I jump over the foxhole they are in. swing the hammer and I kill 5 brutes, and the armor on the rest of them breaks off and Kasey and Dom unload on them. "Damn this hammer is great!" I say. "Sarge, Jack is dead," I wait for a response but it doesn't come. I look behind me and see that Sarge's group is gone. "No!" I yell "Sarge answer me Sarge damn it!" I see brutes finishing off Sarge's squad.

I close my eyes this is bad we are going to die here with the rest of my squad. "Command" I yell into my radio. "We need a pick up north of the city. There are now 3 of use left and we are out of ammo."

"Roger that a pelican is on its way." I sigh and sit down on the side of the foxhole. I hear the brutes that killed Sarge's squad and I look down behind us. "Shit they spotted us, get ready." I yell to Dom and Kasey. I lift the hammer up again and I run at the brutes. They don't seem to want to fight long range. They want to get up close and beat us to death. I swing the hammer and I kill a brute. His body flies into another knocking him over I swing the hammer again and I get two brutes with that one. I can't lift the hammer up again it weighs to freaking much. I fall to my knees, I'm so tried. I close my eyes and I feel a brute lift me off the ground.

Then all of a sudden I fall down to the ground. I see the brute dead in front of me. I look behind me to the top of the hill and there is a ODST soldier with a sniper rifle and I get up and run to the hill. The pelican is her and I jump on to it. Kasey and Dom are already on. The ODST gets on last and he asks "Where's my thank you?"


	3. Chapter 3

Kasey, Dom, and I make it back to the UNSC Ship. I feel numb, the entire squad expect us were killed and Dom is no condition to keep fighting. The plasma burn on his side appears to be infected so he will be out of action for some time. Hell I don't even know what is going to happen to me right now.

"Private Donahue," I look towards the voice. I snap to attention.

"Lt. Bosd Sir," I say.

"I hear that your squad failed the mission." I looked down to my feet.

"Yes Sir we were over run," I say.

"Follow me son," He says as he walks away. I look back to Kasey and Dom and then I start to follow him. He leads me deeper into the ship, and to an office that has his name on it. We going inside and he tells me to take a sit. I sit down and watch him do the same. " So from what I hear you three are all that made it off that planet alive." My eyes go wide.

"Everyone else is dead?"

"Yes and the planet is being glasses."

"But why aren't we still fighting them? In the ship I mean," I can't see why we are letting this happen.

"We can't afford to lose any more military assets for this colony. But, before you say anymore this is beside the point. Do you remember the ODST trooper that saved your life?" I nod. "Well he is a friend of mine. And he wants you to join his squad." I am shocked I just failed a mission and I am being promoted. "You can refuse if you want to, but I think it is in your best interest to accept.

"Of course I will," I say.

"Good," I hear the voice from behind me. I turn around it is the same ODST.

"Rory, you are dismissed." I snap a salute to the Lt. and I get up from the sit. The ODST tells me to follow him I nod my head and I walk behind him.

"Your name is Rory right?" He asks.

"Yeah, and yours?" I ask.

"Name's Jake and I'm you new sergeant."

"Ok where are we going?" He looks at me and laughs.

"Look at you in that shitty armor, I can't believe you didn't die in it. You need new ODST armor, and training lots of training in little time so hurry up." I nod and follow him to the armory. I take off my body armor and toss it to the ground. He hands me an ODST helmet. "Here is your new armor hurry up and get into it training starts now." I salute him and get into the black ODST armor. I take a deep breath and put on my helmet. I look in a mirror. I look so bad ass! I grab an assault rifle and leave the armory.

"So how am I going to train?" I ask he is about to answer when the alarm goes off.

"All units get to battle stations." The intercom says.

"Looks the like the covenant aren't letting us go with a fight" Jake says "Alright you are getting a crash course training lesson so be ready" I run after him as he bolts down the hallway. We reach what appears to a HEV (******Human Entry Vehicle)** launch pad. Jake goes to a intercom on the wall. "Captain I have idea to take down this Covenant ship. Get us over that ship and we will drop right on top of it!"

"It is worth a shot get your men ready Sergeant," The captain says.

"Wait what?" I ask shocked at what I just heard.

"You can wait here if you aren't cut out to be and ODST."

"No I am going!" I say. He shows me to a pod and also how to use it.

"The MAC cannon blasted a hole right into it get ready your troopers are going in soon." The Captain says. I get into the HEV and, I say a prayer. This is insane. "Launching in 3 ….2 … 1 LAUNCH!" Holy shit I can see the space outside the HEV and I look to the Covenant ship and how at least half of the HEVs are missing there target. Mine however doesn't and I feel the impact of the deck inside the ship.

I activate the charges to open it and grab my assault rifle. I jump out and I see four more HEVs land near me. Jake comes out of one of them. "What happened to everyone else?" I ask.

"They missed" He says as the other three get out of their pods. "Don't worry if we live through this we can pick them up." Then I see a container land next to us. "Oh by the way these guys are Marc, Zac, and you know Kasey." I walk to Kasey and we look at each other.

"Damn this is crazy" I say Kasey nods. "What is in that thing?" I ask Jake.

"Oh this well it is a nuke." He says calmly "Now we don't have much time so let's move"

Marc, Zac, and Kasey carry the nuke. "Ok we need to get to the reactor room so we can be sure to get the ship down." Jake tells us. I see a grunt and I put a round between his eyes and he falls. "Nice shot Rory." We make our way deeper into the ship without anymore more contacts with covenant. Then we get to a room that looks like a mess hall.

"Oh shit" We all say. There are at least fifteen pissed of brutes here. The other guys put down the nuke, and we open up on them. I kill two of them and then throw a grenade that breaks off a few brutes armor. The others take them down. The brutes return fire and I feel the air get knocked out of me as a plasma rifle hits me in the chest. Thank God I have this new armor or I would be screwed. I fall to the ground, trying to get my breathe back. I stand up and reload my assault rifle and I start to fire again but instead of spraying randomly I aim for a hole in the armor, the brutes go down easier this way. We finish off the last of the brutes and we keep going. I grab a few of their spike grenades and I retake my spot up front. We run into a group of grunts that we take down easily. We are getting closer to the reactor room I can feel it.

"How do we know where to go?" I ask.

"I am winging it" Jake says. Somehow we find in and while Marc the demo expert sets up the nuke a group of grunts and jackals show up. I take cover on the side of the door.

"Eat this bastard!" I yell and I throw the spike grenade it hit a grunt who has a plasma grenade primed in his hands. The explosion from the grenades kills or wound everything in that small hallway. I look out into the hallway and fire a few rounds into the ones still moving.

"Ok it is armed" Marc says "We have 15 minutes to get the hell out of here!"

"Ok if this is like the Covenant ship that the UNSC has captured in the past the hanger should be this way," Jake says. We sprint out of the reactor room. It takes ten minutes to get to the hanger. Bad news is we have 5 minutes left the really bad news is that the hanger is full of grunts and elites. "This bad let's see if we can sneak over to that phantom." Jake leads the way. We are ten feet away when we are spotted. Plasma rounds fly by our heads a we make a break for the covenant drop ship.

"Ah shit!" I hear Marc yell. I turn to see him fall to the ground. I run back for him and give him a hand up. A plasma grenade nearly knocks me off my feet as I pull Marc to the phantom. We jump into the gravity lift, we are transported to the inside of the ship.

"Zac get us out of here now!" Jake yells.

"Roger that" Zac replies.

"Three minutes" Marc says as he sits down. The phantom roars to life and starts moving out of the covenant ship.

"This is ODST wolf team, we are in the phantom I repeat we are in the phantom don't fire." Jake says over the radio. We are halfway back to our ship when the nuke goes off and it completely destroys the covenant ship. "Hell yeah good job marines."

"We get to the UNSC ship's hanger bay and Zac sets the Phantom down on the deck.

Damn this has been a long day.

XxXxXxXxX

I haven't been able to contact my family since I went on the first mission. They probably think I am dead, but I am on the UNSC's Spirit of the Fallen training to be an elite killing machine. I'm on my bed just relax for the first time in forever. It has been three weeks since joining ODST and I have train everyday nonstop. But today Jake was called away so I have a day off. I hear a knock on my door and I rub my eyes, yawn and get up. I open the door I see Kasey, "Yo," I say.

"Hey man, listen I think we are heading to another colony." He says

"Well, we'll beat them for sure this time." I say remembering the first colony we went to and how Kasey and I were two of the three people that made it out alive, the third being Dom and he was pretty messed up and we haven't heard anything about him.

"I hope so. Well I just wanted to let you know."

"Thanks," I say he walks away. I close my eyes and let sleep take me.

XxXxXxXxXx

My eyes crack open, I look over to the top of my dresser and I see Jack's dog tags. I walk to them and pick them up. I hold them in front of me. Just by looking at the memories washed over me. Memories of home a better time family, friends, I sigh and put them back down. "Damn it I won't let another one of my friends die," I say but I know that I can't keep the vow. I hear a knock on my door, and before I can answer the door opens.

"Rory," I hear. I turn to the voice it is Jake. I put a smile on my face despite the pain I feel inside.

"Hey Jake," I say.

"Listen death follows ODST you can't save everyone."

"Oh yeah watch me!" I say determination setting in.

"Well whatever, we have a mission tomorrow high chance of death and you need to make out your will." I nod.

"I already did so what is this mission?" I ask.

"The mission is to take down a Covenant stronghold …" He starts.

"That doesn't sound any harder than taking down a Covenant ship."

"You didn't let me finish, this is a stronghold of a Covenant colony planet."

"What?!" Shock is in my voice.

"We can't win this war on defense alone. So be sure to have your A game tomorrow." He says and he walks away. I sit down on my bed, how can we even hope to take down one of their colonies we can't even defend ours. I shake my head I guess he is right, and maybe the Covenant will be as surprised as me and not expect it.

"Tomorrow is going to suck," I say out loud. I close my eyes and I start to drift back to sleep.

The next morning I wake up and I get into my ODST armor and put on my helmet. I walk to The HEV launch pad and I see that my squad is already here. "Hey," I say and I walk over to my pod.

"Hey Rory," they say. "Alright gather round guys" Jake says. "As you all know we are attacking a stronghold," We nod."Good, this is a stealth op so we are the only ones attacking the stronghold." My eyes go wide. Jake laughs. "Told you to make out your will, But we will have Marines attacking the stronghold as a diversion and we will jump right down their mouths. Now there will be 300 marines from this ship and 300 from two others, so that is 600 marines plus us five … Against a colony." I start laughing I laugh so hard tears form in my eyes. "Something funny?" He asks I keep laughing.

"You kind of have to feel sorry for them." I say between laughs. "This isn't fair." The others start laughing with me.

"605 against thousands not fair for them," Marc says I laugh harder.

"Ok let's get ready," Jake says still laughing. I grab an assault rifle and an auto magnum. I get into my HEV and rub the tears from my eyes and I try and catch my breath.

"Damn that was funny," I say I hear them agree and I close my pod's door. Then I hear that damn voice.

"Launching in three …. Two … One launching." The pod flies out of the ship and we are heading so fast towards that colony. I laugh again.

"Rory if you don't watch it we are going to think you have a screw loose," Jake says over the radio. That makes us laugh again. "Game faces boys," Jake says as we are entering orbit. I stop laughing and I get ready to fight. I feel my HEV slam down to the ground, the door flies open and it hit something right in the face. I jump out trying to see what I hit.

"Holy shit a hunter!" I yell. Lucky of me the door from my pod seems to have knocked him out so I release a few rounds from my assault rifle into him. The others get out.

"What the hell Rory?" I hear Zac ask.

"I hit it with my pod's door." I laugh. Jake walks over and kicks the hunter.

"In all my years I have never seen that." We share a laugh and what for the start of the mission. "Ok men we are right over here he says pointing with a map that we got from scouts. "Their base is right over this hill" He says pointing over to a large hill. "And the attack begins …." I hear an explosion and see a pelican blow up mid air. "Now move it!" He says he we sprint for the hill. When we make it to the top I'm shock to see how big it is.

"This place is huge, it has to be at least 30 stories and –"

"Game face," Jake says I nod and shut up. We move down the hill and get up against the side of the base. "Marc set the charges." He goes to the wall and pulls out demo charges. He starts setting them up. I hear full on fighting now as the battle between the Covenant and the marines heats up.

"Get back," Marc says we listen and at a safe distance he blows the charges.

"Get in there," Jake yells. I run forward and I am the first inside. I see grunts check out the noise I put my assault rifle on my back and pull out my auto mag. I take them out easily. "Good thinking everyone use your auto mag. Because it is silenced," He explains. We move up, I'm in the front. I see five jackals and three grunts in the room in front of us. I hold up my hand and then I put all my fingers in the air. Telling them there are five enemies and I pull my fingers down and put up three more. I count down to zero with my fingers. At zero I run into the room, and I turn right to shot the jackals and grunts on the right side of the room I take down 2 jackals and a grunt and turn to see the ones on the left dead from Jake.

"This must be an armory," I say as I see all the plasma weapons. I grab as many plasma grenades as I can. Then I walk to the door at the far side of the room. "So where are we going Jake?"

"We are going to the top. There is intel up there that command values more than us. So let's not fail them. We are looking for a grav lift to shot us right up to the top." I nod and open the door. The hallway splits two ways.

"Left or right?" I ask.

"Shit Kasey Rory go right we will go left and radio us if you find anything" Jake says. We agree and we head right. We keep heading down the hallway.

"I guess the marines are doing their jobs I don't see anything" Kasey says.

"Yeah I guess so." I say then I see an end to the hallway. I open the door and Kasey rushes in.

"Clear!" He yells. I walk in and I see the grav lift.

"Jake We found it. It is all the way down the right hallway." I say over the radio.

"We got one over here to. You guys head up and we will meet up top."

"Roger over and out." I say. "Let's go" I walk to the grav lift and I stop in front of it. I hate this feeling but I jump in. "Jesus Christ!" I yell as I get pulled upward. It takes awhile to get to the top of the base. My boots touch the ground and I see a brute staring at me I feel Kasey land next to me. The brute reaches for the weapon next to him. We unload our assault rifles into it. The brute falls to the ground and I look around. I see a small room with only one exit.

"This way I guess," Kasey says. I nod and he opens the door I rush in to the next room. I see a shit load of brutes and I jump out of the room as plasma flies over my head.

"Holy shit, throw grenades." I say. I threw all three of my frag grenades into the room I hear them yelling in pain. A brute runs into the room we are in and slams Kasey against the wall. I pull up my rifle only to have it hit from my hands. It picks me up and puts me against the wall.

"It is time you died!" The brute growls. I laugh at it.

"Sorry I think your time is up!" I say and I arm a plasma grenade and shove it in his face. He drops me and I kick it back into the room. I hear the bang and I look into the room brute blood covering most of it. I look over at Kasey. He gets to his feet.

"Damn asshole," Kasey mutters. I look back in the room and I see a door across from us open I pull my head back and I hear.

"What the hell … Who did this," that sounds like Zac. I walk into the room.

"Hey," I say and grab my assault rifle.

"Damn you two nice work." Jake says. "So I guess it is that way because we came from over there and you guys from there so let's do this." I take point and move up. Jake opens the door and I look in.

"SHIT!," I yell and get my head back into the room. I see rockets from a fuel rod cannon fly by. They rockets crash into the wall behind us making a hole. I see the brute run at us with a hammer. "Not this again. He slams it as I jump back I get thrown up against the back wall near the hole. I look up and see that the brute was right in front of Kasey. The brute swings the hammer, Kasey jumps back but it grazes him and he is sent flying. He is headed right for the hole. He hits the ground right in front of the hole and rolls off the edge. "NO!" I yell and I dive to the hole, I grab his hand at the last second. Not this again I won't let him die like Matt. I start to lift him. "I got you!" I yell. I pull him to the ground. "Damn that was hard. Hey lay off the food man."

I look at the battle and the brute is lying dead at their feet. "Good save Rory," Jake says******. **I nod and I get back to my feet. Then I fall right over. They all look at me.

"Agh… I slipped." I laugh I stand up again and look in the room. "I think this is it." I say.

"You are right," Jake says and walks over to the computer in the middle of the room and pulling something out of his pocket.

"What's that?" I ask.

"An AI, cause none of us here are smart enough to hack the Covenant system but this is," He says as he put is it into the computer. I nod. "Command Mission successful we need pick up. There is a hole in the top of the building a pelican can get us there."

"Roger that pelican on its way." The AI does it job and we are waiting for the pelican when we hear a laughing.

"Foolish humans you think I am going to let you go?" I look over and see a huge elite with a energy sword.

"And who the hell are you!" I yell. I lift up my assault rifle aiming it at the elite.

"It matters not, for you are going to die soon." He activates the sword and rushes me. I dodge to the side and I feel the heat from the sword. I roll away and open up on him. The bullets not even bothering him a little bit. He walks at me. I try and shoot but I am out of ammo. The guys are shooting him but is walking right through it. I run at him and drop shoulder it to its gut. We both fall to the ground and I see the pelican waiting for us. "Eat this bitch," I say and arm a plasma grenade and stick it in his mouth. I jump off and I leap on to the pelican. The others jump on right after me.

I hear the Elite yelling then a bang and nothing. "I think I got him," I say.

"Yeah I think so." Jake replies. I look out the bay of the pelican and see other pelicans flying away.

"What about the base?" I ask. "Did we do that all for intel! We aren't even going to blow up the-" I hear a huge explosion. I look back and I see the base engulfed in flames.

"Ok never mind."


	4. Chapter 4

I awake with a start as the alarm goes off, and I jump off the bed. My reaction is automatic now I suit up in my gear grab my assault rifle and head to the HEV launch pad. I am the first of the squad to make it there besides Jake that is. "What is going on now?" I ask.

"The Colony we are protecting is about to be attacked."

"So the same as normal," I say.

"Yeah pretty much."

"You were right. We can't last forever just defending our colonies," He nods.

"Trust me I know," I sigh and sit in my pod. Then a new alarm goes off.

"What the hell does that mean?" I ask.

"No it can't be. Wait here," He says as he flies out the door. This is great I am stuck sitting here.

"Where is Jake?" Kasey asks.

"Good question … Shit." I say as the ship puts a 180 and I almost slip. "Where the hell are we going?"

"Good question." Kasey repeats me and I laugh. Marc and Zac show up and we wait for Jake to come back for a half hour.

"Ok what the hell happened to the colony we were protecting we are moving away from it." Zac says.

"Men, I have very bad news." We look at him wondering just what the hell happened. "Earth our home is under attack."

"WHAT?!" I scream

"No… That can't happen." Zac mutters.

"Shit," Marc says.

"Well, damn it." Kasey breaths out.

"We're now on our way to Earth, no matter what we must protect it. We will be at Earth in a few days I suggest that you get a lot of sleep and be prepared. You are dismissed!" We all leave.

"Not Earth, shit we can't beat them we should let them have Earth and protect the colonies they haven't attacked yet," Zac says. Anger flashes through me. I push him up against the wall.

"What the hell you pansy you call yourself a Marine?" I shout at him. I am mad about Earth. I shouldn't be taking it out on him but I can't help it. "We have to fight them. I will die to protect my family and friends, if we run they are doomed and it will be all our fault. I won't retreat and hide!" I scream at him in till my voice is horse.

"Relax Rory," Kasey says and pulls me off Zac.

"Whatever I am out of here," I say as I walk away. When I get back to my room I fall apart. I fall to my knees and I start to remember everyone I left behind to protect them now I can't. I am too far away. I get out of my battle suit and I get into so sweats and a t shirt. I head for the mess hall.

I get some food and I sit down at a table the mess hall is packed and people are talking about what is going on. I sit by myself and I daze out. I am sitting there for a good five minutes when I hear something. "Hello?" I look around and I see a rather good looking woman to my right. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Uh no go right ahead." I say and I keep eating. "So what's your name?" I ask.

"I am Victoria but my friends call me Tori. You?"

"Me, I'm Rory Donahue," I say and my bad mood disappeared. My normal smile came back.

"What do you do?" She asks me. I laugh.

"I am an ODST." She looks surprised.

"R-really wow I have heard so many stories about you guys."

"Really? What team?"

"Wolf team," My smile gets wider.

"That's my team," I say and laugh. "What have you heard I set you straight."

"Well I heard you have drop on to a Covenant ship and blew it up and made it out with a Covenant ship."

"That is actually true. That was my first mission as an ODST."

"Wow, and I heard that it was your team that killed an Ship Master in the last mission."

"What's an Ship Master?" I ask.

"It is a huge elite that controls a ship they are like the best of the best."

"Hmm yeah that was me. I stuck in the face with a plasma grenade."

"Really," She says shocked.

"Yup," I smile and laugh. "He nearly killed me so I tackled him and stuck a plasma grenade into his mouth then BANG," I recall the story for her.

"That is so cool."

"What about you do you have any stories?"

"No this is my first mission now I just got out of boot camp."

"I never made it out of boot camp." I laugh at her expression.

"What how?"

"Well after a training mission, we were called out to protect a colony and we went but only me and two others made it out alive. We lost everyone else. Even a close friend of mine."

"I am sorry. I didn't know." She looks upset.

"Don't worry about it," I smile. I look down I have been done eating for quite some time now. "Well I am going to head out but it was nice meeting you Tori," I say and get up.

"If you like we can meet here tomorrow." I smile.

"Sure I'd like that." She agrees and I walk away. When I get to my room I fall asleep.

XxXxXxXxXx

Over the next few days I spend a lot of time with Tori, the next few days pass in a blur. Tori looks nervous, this being her first mission after all.

"Don't worry Tori I'll protect you."

"Thanks Rory that makes me feel better." She jokes. It was only a few hours to Earth and the fight that will change our lives forever is fast approaching.

"No problem it is what I do," I say and we break apart. "Well I got to go get ready. I will meet you here half hour before the start of the mission right?"

"Yeah. Ok see ya." I walk to my room and suit up. I head to the HEV launch pad. For the next few hours the squad and I go over our mission to kill the Covenant forces that are on the ground.

"Hey, guys I will be right back." I say and I leave the room. I walk to Tori's room. I knock on her door and she opens it dressed in the marine's armor.

"Rory?" She asks.

"Oh yeah I forgot." I say as I take off my helmet.

"That's better. So you are going to be careful right?" She asks worried.

"Yeah if I died who is going to protect you?" I ask. She laughs and gives me a quick hug before I have to go.

XxXxXxXxXx

Back in the HEV launch room I am in my pod and ready to kick some ass. We are orbiting over Earth. It is mission time.

"Good luck guys" Jake says.

"Launching in 3… 2… 1…" Space is all I see as we are blasted towards our home. Then my pod starts to drift. I try to correct it but my controls are locked up.

"Shit, I can't control my pod and I'm drifting away from you guys."

"Shit Rory, what is going on?" I hear in the radio. "Why are you drifting?"

"Huh I just told you wait can you hear me?" I ask.

"Rory, what the hell?" They all say. We enter the atmosphere, I'm scared I can barely see their pods and I am still drifting.

I hit the ground and the door flies open. I jump out and look around. Wait I know is place.

"No this is my home!" I yell and I run to the road. I am only a few minutes from my house. I look around there are fires burning openly. I start running to my house. I make there in a minute or two and I fall to my knees. My house is still intact but Morgan's is just gone. I get up and run to my house. The door is locked. I slam on the door.

"OPEN UP!" I yell. I lift my leg up and I kick the door as hard as I can I do it a few more times and the door opens up. I walk inside with my assault rifle up and ready to go. "Anyone in here?" I walk in downstairs to the basement.

"Who the hell are you?" I hear my dad ask with his old assault rifle from his days in the marines pointed right at me. I lower my assault rifle and put in on my back and I reach up to take my helmet of when I hear a bang upstairs. I lift a finger telling them to wait here and I got upstairs. I look towards the door there are 4 grunts and a brute looking through things. I take out my auto mag. And drop the grunts and the swap to my assault rifle and I get the brute in half a clip. I put my assault rifle on my back again and I take off my helmet and go downstairs.

"Rory, you are alive!" My mom runs to me and gives me a hug. My dad stares at me and despite it all Sam laughs. Then I look to the corner of the room.

"Who is that?" I ask point to the blankets. I walk over to it and I lift the blanket up and I see a bruised Morgan. My heart breaks at this sight I promised her that I would protect her. "Is she alright?"

"She has been in a coma since the beginning of the attack a few days ago." My dad says.

"Shit well I need to get you guys out of here. Sam you're go with electronics right?"

"Yeah why?" I point to my helmet.

"Last mission I guess it broke when I got hit into a wall I need you to fix it because I have no clue where my squad is." He nods and I toss him my helmet and he sets it down on a work table and gets to work on it.

"Well you made ODST I guess huh?" My dad asks.

"Yeah I did," I say sadly. And then I tell them everything that has happened to me in my short time in the Corps. How Matt died in boot camp, how only three of us made it off the first colony, how we blow up the covenant ship, all of it. They seem shocked at my actions. "What happened to my friends?" I finally ask.

"We don't know they hopefully got out before this all happened." My mom says I nod.

"Hey I fixed it Rory," Sam says and he tosses me the helmet. I put it on my head again.

"Jake? Zac? Anyone?" I speak into the radio.

"Rory?! Where the hell are you man?" I sigh in relief.

"Yeah it is me, I'm at my house," I say.

"You live here?" Jake asks.

"Yeah I do and I need someone to fix me helmet's radio. And I got civilians here and I need a pelican to pick them up."

"Ok tell command."

"Command, I need a pelican at my location asap."

"Roger that wolf team," I hear and I look at my family.

"You guys got a ride out of here and I have to go I still have a job to do," I say and I walk upstairs. I leave the house. "Jake where are you?"

"I don't know uh I am near some park and a school and we need back up." I know where that is I start walking there then I stop turn around and run back into my house grab a set of keys and go to my dad's car. I start it up and I drive to the park. I see a large Covenant force focusing on about ten Marines and some ODST. That has to be them I start to drive faster and I put on my seat belt. I am only a few feet from the Covenant and they open up on me. I throw the car sideways and hit the most of the Covenant forces. The car stops moving and I jump out and run to cover.

"Rory you just keep surprising me," He laughs. I laugh and we take out the rest of the covenant. "Alright now that we found our lost squad mate it is time to set up defenses here," he says point at a map. "Our intel is saying that most Covenant active has been trying to get to that building. Rory do you know that building?" I look at the map and I nod my head.

"That is my high school why are they trying to get there?" I ask.

"Who knows and who cares," Kasey says. I laugh and take a look and the marines for the first time.

"Tori?" I ask.

"Rory is that you under that helmet," Yeah it is her.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"I am go-" She cut off by Jake.

"Let's go save it for later!" He says and we start walking to my old high school.

"This sucks I say we let them have it."

XxXxXxXxXx

"Rory how much longer?" Jake asks. We have been walking for about ten minutes and I sigh.

"I told you already about five minutes" I reply and we keep walking. The sun is setting and Jake tells us to stop.

"Hold up guys I am going to contact the soldiers in the school. Delta 2-5 this is wolf team. Delta 2-5? Hello?" He says over and over. I shake my head this bad. Jake lifts up his sniper rifle and looks into the scope. "Delta team is gone. Covenant forces are move into the school and they aren't being attack." We get closer to the school to get a better look and we see Covenant all over the place and Jake singals us to form up.

"This is bad they are all over the place up there but we have to get in there. Rory, you and Kasey flank around to the back of the school and breach in where ever you can. Marines you take the right side of the school, Zac go with them. Marc and I will snipe the Covenant forces at the front of the school and cause chaos." We all nod and split up. Kasey and I get to the back and I led us to a door.

He tries to open the door. "Shit it is locked." I laugh.

"Watch this," I say and I pull very hard on the door and swings open. "Great lock right?" He nods and we walk in ready to fire. I look up the school is in bad shape there is crumbling stairs and bullet holes all over. I hear grunts running to the front of the school. We move up and I see a brute that isn't paying attention to us. I sneak up behind him and swing my rifle at his head. He falls forward and recovers. "Shit," I say and he turns around I pull my rifle back into a firing position and Kasey puts a round from his auto mag right between its eyes. "Good one."

We take the body into a class room. "Jake come in."

"What I am kinda busy out here. Marc watch the right!" He replies hastily

"What is our objective?"

"Blow it the hell up."

"Easy enough. Kasey you got anything to do that?"

"Yeah I got some. Maybe it will be enough but I hope Zac gets in here."I nod, and we head to the middle of the school. The hallways are pretty much clear, Jake and Marc must be doing a good job. I hold up my hand telling Kasey to stop. There is a group of Brutes up ahead. "Take the ones on the left. I got the right." I lift my hand up with three fingers up. I count down and at zero we unload into the brutes. The brutes turn and up fire, I see Kasey get hit in the side. He throws a grenade and it goes off right in the middle of them and takes them out. I run over to him "Kasey you ok?"

"Ah shit this hurts" He grabs his chest I look at it.

"Well it didn't go through the armor come on lets move" He nods and gets up. We mover forward and I hear over the radio.

"Marc, watch it they're moving up. You see them? Then shoot them!"

We get to the middle of the school and we go into the classroom nearest. "Zac?"

"Yeah?" He asks.

"We are in the middle waiting for you and your team."

"We are almost to you location." He says. Just then they walk into the class room. There are a few less marines and I look at Tori she looks like she is in shock. I sigh and Zac starts setting up the bomb.

"MARC God damnit he is right in front of you!" I hear "Shit Marc get the HELL OUT OF THERE! NO." Jake is yell.

"Shit this hurts I he got me good," We hear Marc's voice. "He's down though."

"Marc hang on. You are going to be fine. Shit there's blood everywhere," I guess Marc's helmet got ripped off cause we can't hear him anymore. "Hey Marc I am right here bro keep your eyes open. Hey stay with me! No no no," The rest of us look at each other.

"We have to get out there." I say.

"I need some more time planting this bomb." Zac says.

"Ok Kasey stay with him. Marines on me." I say and bolt out of the classroom I race to the main entrance of the school. It only takes a minute, and the entrance is full of brutes. We get close and I hear the brutes laughing.

"There is one left now," I see the brute look out the door. I pull out my combat knife and jump on the back of the brute. Before he reacts I plunge the knife into its neck. It falls and I get off it. The other brutes look to see the nose and I signal the marines to open up. I join my bullets with theirs and we cut down the group of them.

I look out of the school's double doors to see Jake firing his sniper rifle at a brute, a brute yells out and throws a plasma grenade towards Jake. The grenade goes off near Jake and it knocks him to the ground. I throw a grenade into the group of brutes, and they scatter. The group of marines take aim at the brutes, and the mow them down one by one. There are a few jackals with them, a jackal with a beam rifle takes aim and fires at the marines. The shot hit a marine right in the head and he falls dead. I dive behind cover and reload. "Take cover, sniper!" I yell. I look up and see that there are only three brutes left and about five jackals. "Grenades!"

I throw a grenade at the group of them, Tori throws all the grenades she has into the group. I few bangs later I look up to see everything dead. I run over to where Jake was. "Jake? Hey don't be dead, come on man."

"Ah this hurts." He replies "It just grazed me. I'm all good" He gets up. There is a loud nose and we look to see a Covenant dropship coming. "We got to move forget the school."

"Jake I just finished up with the charges so we can still blow it." Zac yells through the radio.

"Good lets move." We run to the back of the school met up with Zac and Kasey and take off. We don't stop in till we are about ten minutes from the school.

"This is going to be a big one." Zac laughs. A huge bang and a brilliant light come from the school.

"Why did we blow it up again?" I ask.

"They wanted something in there so whatever it was we couldn't let them have it."

"What! That's the only reason? What the hell?"

"It's too late now. The past is the past." He replies quietly. We look around and see a house we can hold up in. "Ok everyone we are going to head to the house, but be careful we don't know how many Covenant around." I dash to the front of the house, I open the front door.

"Hello? Anyone here?" I yell out. No answer. I wave the others up and the cross the street, After we clear the house we meet up in the living room.

"Ok we hold here for the night and I will contact command in the morning. We could all use a good rest." Jake informs us. We nod, I take off my helmet and wipe the sweat off my face. There are only are only seven of us now out of twelve when we started. I drop down onto a chair and rest my head on my arm. I drift off to sleep. A few hours later I wake up and look around. Tori is up and sitting near me. I see that she is crying. I move closer to her.

"Hey are you okay?" I ask. She takes a minute to try and collect herself before talking.

"No, look at this place. People dead in the streets, my teammates dying our teammates." Her voice breaks up. I put my arm around her to try and calm her down.

"We are going to be fine." I say but I don't believe it.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?" I ask.

"You have lost so much and yet you don't let it show. You lost your marine squad, your friend, you home, and now your friend Marc."

"I don't think about I guess. I honestly don't know." She leans against me and I notice she fell asleep. I sigh and close my eyes. "Morgan please be ok." I whisper quietly.

XxXxXxXx

"Oh isn't that cute?" I hear I open my eyes Tori and I are still in the same position as last night. We look at each other and jump apart. I feel my face heating up.

"Shut up Kasey, it isn't like that." I say. I put my helmet on and yawn. "So what is the news Jake?"

"Well looks like we have to get the hell out of here. An ODST squad is going to place a nuke in the middle of the city, and then well boom."

"WHAT? No they can't do that there are still people here!" I yell.

"Rory relax don't let personal feelings mess up the mission. This is Earth we have to do whatever it takes."

"How is blowing up my entire city for the good of mankind? The school was one thing but this is insane!" I'm very close to yell at this point. Jake sighs and takes a moment to reply.

"You know what I don't really give a shit, orders are orders. My guess would be by eliminating the city we take out one of their footholds on Earth." I grit my teeth and I want to argue more but I see it is pointless.

"Where are we going then?"

"A pelican is going to pick us up and transport us to a base then. We will get new orders."

"Guys big God damn problem!" Zac runs inside. "Covenant and a shit load of them."

"Get ready to fight!" Jake orders and I grab my rifle. I look outside and there are grunts far away but they are coming our way. Jake gets into a sniping location and starts picking them off. A marine looks out the window and a beam rifle shot hits him in the heart. He drops the ground.

"Sniper!" I yell and move over to the marine carefully. He is dead, "He's gone"Jake take out the sniper with his rifle. " Rory tell command we need a pick up now"

"Command, This is Wolf team."

"Roger that Wolf team what is it?"

"We need pick up now we are pinned in a house with heavy Covenant force inbound."

"Alright we got a lock on your position but the nearest pelican is a half hour out."

"We might not have that long!" Plasma rips through the window.

"I'll keep you updated on the pelican but you are on your own for now." I tell everyone the news and we get ready to hold them off. I look out to see a wall of grunts running at us. Jake can't take them all down, I shoot out the window and take down two grunts. The marines take go upstairs and fires out the windows.

"Kasey rocket now," Jake yells. Kasey pulls out the rocket launcher and fires both rounds and the charge stops as the rest of the grunts retreat. "Buggers!" I hear Zac yell. Flying at us are a swarm of buggers.

"Fire fire fire!" I yell and we fire everything we got at them. The bugs fall easy but it takes awhile to kill them all. Four figures show up at the edge of our sight. They run closer. "Hunters with grunt back up" Jack tells us. Kasey fires the last two rockets at a hunter and it falls but the other three rush forward. I fire at the hunters but my bullets only bounce off. The hunter charges up a shot from the cannon on its arm and blows away the marine right next to me. Two more cannon shots tear apart the house but miss everyone.

"Wait for it," Zac says with a _detonator in his hand. The hunter get right outside the front of the house and then there is an earsplitting bang and the hunters are no more. Wave after wave crashagainst us and push them off. But I am out of ammo so is Tori and Kasey. _

_ "Wolf Team Pelican is two minutes away. But the zone you are in is too hot there is a field about a half mile to the south of you that it can make the pick up there."_

_ "Well you hear her let's move." Zac plants a few charges and we run out of the house. I bring upon the rear cover our retreat with some ammo Jake gave me. We reach the field and Zac blows the house but I see a brute chieftain with a hammer run right for us. I fire at it. It covers the distance between us to fast. The pelican touches down and they start getting on. As everyone climbs aboard I engage the chieftain to buy time. I glance around and everyone is on but me, I turn and jump on the pelican but I feel something pulling me back. The chieftain over powers me and I fall on the floor of the pelican . I reach out and Tori and Jake grab my hands. "Let him go!"_

_ "I Can't get a clear shot!" Kasey yells out._

_ "We have to go!" The pilot calls back to us. "The Covenant reinforcements are almost here!" Their grip is failing and the pelican is lifting up._

_ "Let go now guys get out of here!" I say. "Jake you said orders were orders right? So get the hell out of here!" _

_ "No Rory hold on we can save you" Tori says Jake agrees._

_ "I won't let be the reason someone dies!" and I let go, I fall out of the pelican with was now a few feet off the ground. The brute throws me down on the ground. "No Rory!" I hear but the pelican races away._

_ I get up and the Brute is looking right at me I reach for my rifle but I must have dropped it. I only have my knife now. I pull it up and stare at the brute. "COME ON!" I yell. It laughs and drops its hammer. It cracks its knuckles and charges me, I am helpless as it hits me. The wind is forced out of me, I'm lifted off my feet and throw a few meters away. As I skid across the ground I roll to my feet.I was already sore before this, fighting all day yesterday and this morning. It walks to me and I try to stab him, but it stops my hand, disarms me and throws the knife away. Then I feel pain as it rips my helmet off. He punches me in the face and all I see is black._

_I wake up in a cell. " Shit," I breath out._


	5. Chapter 5

I look around and see that there are two brutes in front of my cell. I close my eyes and rub my head. This headache will not go away. I sit down and I see the door of my cell open. A brute drags me to my feet and I am helpless as he does it. The brute slams me up against the wall and I gasp in pain. Then and punches my gut and I feel the wind fly out of me. "What the hell do you want?" I barely say.

"Shut up human," he growls and slams me against the wall again. I cock my right arm back and punch the brute as hard as I can. He stumbles back but regains balance and the throws me to the ground. I get to my feet and put up my hands ready to fight. He laughs at me and I back away from him. He laughs more and I feel the wall against my back. He takes a step closer and I kick him in the knee. The brute growls and rushes me. I jump out of the way. I hear the brute slam against the wall. I look to the cell down which had been left open the other brute must have left cause the coast was clear. Before the brute recovers I run for the door. I slam it behind me and the brute yells. I run down the hallway and I reach a door. I throw it open to see a grunt looking at me. The grunt pulls up a plasma pistol I kick the grunt in the head and it falls over. I kick over and over on the ground. I grab the pistol and keep going.

I see another door and I push it open. The sun light blinds me for a second but I recover and see a few jackals yelling I shoot the pistol and caught one in the eyes. I take cover and fire a few more rounds. I look up to see a squad of grunts joining the fight. I leave cover to shoot the pistol but as soon as I get up a plasma round hits me right in the chest. I fall over and grasp my chest. "AH shit!" I yell. I crawl back to cover and a grunt runs around the corner I fire the pistol into the chest of it. Pain is the only thing I am feeling and my vision is fading. "Shit I am going to die," I say and I look up to the sky. I smile. "It is beautiful." My vision fades but I see four HEV fall down at backbreaking speeds. I can't see anything but I hear.

"Get the fuck away from him!" and the sound of assault rifles cut through the air.

* * *

I open my eyes and I see a white room. "Where am I?"

"A hospital room." I look over and see Kasey there. I sit up and decide that was a bad idea as my chest fills with pain.

"I'm alive? Shit I thought I was dead" I say. He laughs.

"There are some people here that wanted to talk to you but you were knocked out cold. So I go get them. "He says and get up and leaves. A few minutes pass and then the door open revealing my family.

"Guys! What are you doing here?" I ask.

"We came to see you dummy," Sam says, this is great. Then I remember something.

"Where's Morgan?" I ask with a smile. I look around and everyone looks away. My smile is fading.

"Honey, Morgan didn't make it." My mom says. My world is crashing I promised I would save her.

"What? No she can't be." I look around searching for hope somewhere but there was none to find. I am not sure how long I stayed like that but when I focused again it was dark out and there was not one here.

"Morgan" I get up and walk to a nurse, "I am good to go. Can I leave?" She looks at me and nods. I sign out of the hospital. After leaving I found my barracks. I walk in to see Jake and the rest of the team. "Hey guys," I say. They look at me and nod. "Thanks for saving me."

"That wasn't easy Rory so don't try and be the hero again." Jake says. I nod and lay down on my bed I close my eyes and find sleep.

"Rory time to go!" I hear Jake yell. I get up and grab my chest. It feels like it is on fire.

"Jake I need new equipment I lost everything last mission." He nods and and I follow him to an armory.

"Here is everything you need."He points to a rack I grab my new gear and put it on. I grab an assault rifle. "I am going to kill every last covenant motherfucker." I say. We head back to the barracks.

"Rory it is time you meet our new teammate. Come on in." An ODST soldier walks in. The ODST reaches up and takes off the helmet.

"Hi Rory!" Tori says in her new armor. I nod to her, I want to be happy for her but I can manage a smile.

"Anyways we are going to take two warthogs into the nearby ruins of Lowell. After the nuke went off we aren't sure how many are left there. So Rory you will drive one and so will I."

We walk to the motor pool and I get into the drive's seat of the warthog. Tori gets in the passage seat and the rest get in with Jake. I take off and floor the warthog. Five minutes pass without a word then "Are you ok? You are quite." Tori says.

"I am fine." I say without taking my eyes off the ruined road. "There a brute squad."

"Yeah so how do we do this?" She asks.

"Get out real quick I handle this." She looks at me funny. "Get out." She nods and gets out. I floor the warthog. The brutes open fire at me. There are five brutes and I power slide into the group and take out two of them but I also flip the warthog and I am sent flying out. I roll to my feet and grab my rifle off my back. I fire half a clip into the face of a stunned brute. I turn and fire at another brute and take him down as well. The last brute is recovering and I run over to him and hit him with the butt of my assault rifle. He falls over. I lift up my rifle. I pull the trigger point blank but only bullet leaves the camber. "Shit out of ammo" I say I throw down the rifle and pull of my knife I stab over and over in till I am soaked in the brute's blood. "Fuck you! This for Morgan," I yell. I feel someone tugging on me. I look and see Tori try to stop me. I stop and I get off the brute. "Sorry" is all I manage. She hugs me and I tell her everything that happened to Morgan and how I felt about it. After the talk I feel a little better but I still can't shake the feeling that I failed Morgan. "It is just I promised to be there for her no matter what. And I couldn't"

"Rory have you found anything?" Jake asks.

"We found a group of brutes and we took them down,"

"Good alright we have about two hours left then meet up back at base."

"Roger." Together Tori and I flip the warthog and we start to drive again. Two hours later We are heading back to base when a rocket hit right next to the Warthog I try to control the wheel and the warthog goes all over the road. "SHIT" I yelled and floored the pedal. "Where did that come from?" I yell.

"I don't know just keep going," She yelled over the roar of the engine.

"Jake we are under fire a ten miles west of the base."

"Alright hurry up and get back to the base we will be on our way." Jake tells me. I look around and I see a Banshee fling towards us. "This could get rough hold on tight." I say "Get on that gun and bec careful cause I can't stop you have to get going this speed," Tori nods and starts to move to the back of the warthog after a few tries she get on the gun. She Fires at the Banshee.

"Rory he is about to fire!" She yells.

"Hold on" I say and I rip the e brake and go sideways into another street. I turn the warthog straight and push the pedal down again. "Keep shooting, take it down!" We fly down the street the Banshee hot on our ass. The machine gun isn't doing enough damage. I turn on to the main street again and I look back to see the Banshee. I turn my eyes back on the road. I see the other warthog raceing towards. Kasey fires a rocket from the passage seat. The rocket hits the Banshee right in front of the Banshee. The blast from the Banshee makes my warthog spin out and we do a 360 degree spin and I slam on the brakes. "That was close," The other warthog pulled up beside us.

"Rory Let's go follow me back to base." Jake orders. I nod and we get back to base.

"Well that was waste of time," I say when we get back to barracks.

"We thought it best to do an easier mission due to your chest Rory," Jake informs me. I rub the back of my head.

"Oh well we still almost died from the Banshee."


	6. Chapter 6

We take a Pelican back to the Spirit of the Fallen. The Covenant in America were pushed out and we are getting ready of the next steps in the war.

"So in short for the next few weeks we will stay near Earth and act as the last line of defense." Lt. Bosd explains. I am in a group of about a hundred ODST there used to be around three hundred. "Ok dismissed." I follow my team to our barracks. The five of us are relaxing on our beds.

"So how long do think we are going to be waiting?" Kasey asks.

"This is the first time off in like a month I don't even want to think about it." I say. Jake agrees and I put my head on my pillow and close my eyes.

"So what are you going to do have this Zac?" Kasey asks.

"I don't know maybe open a restaurant some place quiet. How about you Jake?"

"Hmm haven't really thought about it. You Rory?" I laugh and say.

"You guys are acting like this war is going to end." They laugh and we share stories about before we joined up.

The Next few days nothing major happens but in a week or so alarms go off in the nighttime. I am jerk from my sleep and I jump up. The Ship shakes violently and I thrown to the ground. "Shit," I say as I get up the others are getting up. "What the hell is happening?" I ask.

"Get to the HEV launch pad now!" Jake yells. I grab my gear and throw it on as fast as possible but as the ship shakes more and more. We reach the launch pad and alarms are going off.

"All crew get to escape pods," A voice on the intercom says. I put on my helmet and get into a HEV.

"This is bad get ready to launch guys," Jake orders. We nod and get ready to leave.

"Mayday I repeat mayday. The Spirit of the Fallen is going down we need back up!" I hear over the intercom.

"Well we are over Eastern America we can launch and risk or we can stay here." Jake tells us after look on a computer.

"I say we go for it because -"Zac is cut off as the ship shakes and starts to lose orbit.

"Yeah let's get the hell out of here." Jake says. I close my pod and next thing I know we are fling through space and right to Earth. "Wanna stay with us this time Rory?" Jake jokes.

"Really funny Sarge," I say sarcastically. Kasey and Zac laugh.

"What are you talking about?" Tori asks. I laugh and we enter the atmosphere. In a few seconds we are hitting the ground and I get out of the HEV. The sun is just rising when I get out.

I look around and see a town in the distance. I look up and see the Spirit of the Fallen falling from the sky it is in pieces and on fire. "Shit guys look at that." I say pointing at it. Then the spirit blows up and a feel a shockwave a few seconds later. "Damn."

"This is bad guys," Zac points out.

"Yeah no shit," Kasey replies.

"Alright we should head to that town see what is going on," Jake says."Cause I can't get anyone on my radio." We start to walk to the town. Half way to the town I look up and I see the Covenant ship in the sky.

"COVENANT!" I yell pointing up to it. Before we can react we see drop ships leaving the ship in masses. "Shit."

"We need cover now," Jake says and we sprint towards the town. As we get to the town we notice it was be abandoned. "This is better, we will not have to deal with civys to deal with."

"Yeah that helps." Zac adds. I get a bad feeling in my gut and look around. Nothing seams to be out of place except us. "Earth to Rory."

"Huh what?" I say confused.

"Go find a phone or something," Jake orders. I nod and run off to the nearest house. I step inside and ready my rifle.

"Hello? Anyone home?" I call out. No answer so I move farer in the house. II find the phone in what appears to be the kitchen. I pick up the phone. "Jake no good. The phones are down." I say into my radio. I run back outside and I see dropship heading our way.

"Get to the big building in the center of town we will hold up in there." Jake tells us. I move up first and kick in the door. After everyone is inside we push a cabinet in front of the door. "Ok I will take the rooftop. And snipe anything that gets close but some may get by me to you guys cover my flank."

"No Jake I am going with you it is to dangerous to be alone," Kasey says.

"Fine let's go." Tori, Zac, and I seal up the windows and the back door and get set up covering the front. What seem like hours drag on but it really could only have been a half an hour. Then I hear a loud shot from the roof and a scream of a grunt. I run to a boarded up window and look through a crack. A few dozens grunts are moving through the town. Jake fires and I see a grunt fall. I stick my rifle out the crack and fire. I spray all over the street and I get three grunts. A plasma grenade flies at me I dive back and blows up on the boards destroying the boards. I look out the hole and fire I take down nine grunts with two clips of ammo and I pull back inside.

Meanwhile Jake is dropping grunts left and right from the roof. Tori takes over for me and fires out the hole. Grunt after grunt runs into a deadly fire. The grunts attack stops and the fall back.

"Be careful because this isn't over." Zac tells me. I nod and look out the hole in the wall. Nothing is moving out side and there are grunts littering the streets. "Hold on I'm going to put down some land mines cover me."

"I got you go for it." I reply. He runs out and start dig holes. "Hurry up out there I got a bad feeling."

"Almost done." He plants the last few and runs back inside he is almost there when a wave of grunts and jackals show up at the edge of town. He jumps into the building from the hole and right after he gets inside shots flies at us. "That was too close," He pants. I fire at the jackals but at this range I miss mostly. Jake however takes down grunts and jackals from the roof.

"Running low on ammo up here," Jake informs us.

"Tori you have the extra ammo right?" I ask. She nods. "Good bring sniper rounds up to Jake." She runs off and I scan the street. By now most of the Covenant are smart and avoid the main street but some aren't I tear through them. I breath heavy and pull my head inside. "We can't keep this up forever." I say.

"Rory, Tori is going to say up here and Kasey is going down. He is going to try and fix a phone or something." Jake says. I agree and Kasey is downstairs in no time. A half hour later We are running low on ammo and the swarm seems never ending.

"I got it!" Kasey yells. "I am going to try and contact someone who can patch us in with command," He calls a few numbers and talks to a few people when he finally gets command. "Command, this ODST's Wolf team we are pinned down in a town in upstate New York. Need back up now."

"Roger that wolf team closest reinforcements will be there in ten minutes."

"Thank God I am down to one shot in my automag," Zac sighs.

"Great they saves the best for last, brutes." I say as I look out the window. I fire but they keep on coming. A brute chieftain runs ahead of the pack and right for us. It takes cover behind a building and fires a fuel rod cannon at us. It blows up against the side of our building and Zac trips and nearly flass outside. The brute pact takes this time to move up and is right in front of the mine field. The chieftain runs through the mine field and my bullets and grabs Zac out of the house.

"Shit how the hell did it not step on one mine?" Zac yells. He struggles but can't get free. The brute rips of his helmet. Zac looks at me and smiles. Zac pulled out his automag and looks down. The chieftain is right over mine.

"Zac no!" I yell but it is to late.

"Hey asshole I got one bullet left and I bet you I can kill ever last one of you motherfuckers." The brutes laugh.

"I can't get a clear shot they are to close to the house," Jake says.

"I can't either Zac is in the way." Zac point his gun at the mine and pulls the trigger. I pull my head but inside just in time. A blast rip through the hole in the wall and I hear screaming brutes outside. "Zac God damn you, you crazy son of a bitch," I slump against the wall and close my eyes.

"Jake, Zac killed the brutes in the front of the building all of them." Kasey tells him.

"Roger that. And ETA on pickup?"

"Soon real soon." I look outside and see a nightmare there is death everywhere. I see a pelican in the distance and I point it out. The pelican touches down and we get on.

"Zac I can't believe he is gone."Kasey says sadly. The sun is going down and we lift up.

"What a shitty day."


	7. Chapter 7

I open my eyes and look around I sit up in my bed. It takes me a few minutes to remember where I am. After the pelican drop us off we found ourselves in a small base in some small town. I am in a small room inside a cabin the rest of my squad is in the other rooms. It has been two days since Zac died no one has said much to each other a silence hung over us death is becoming like second nature and it is scary. I get up and throw on a sweat shirt and sweat pants. I walk out of my room and see no one in the cabin I shrug and walk to the house being used as a mess hall. I get my food and sit down. I look down at the eggs and toast I take a few bites and an explosion rocks the house. I find myself on the floor. I push myself up and I see a blast engulf the roof. I cover my eyes and run. I run out of the door and the light blinds me for a second. I look around fast for my squad but there is only chaos marines running around trying to get ready to fight. A alarm starts going off and I rush back to my cabin. I open the door and see Jake there with his armor on and his rifle ready.

"Hurry Rory!" He yells as I hear the familiar sound of plasma weapons firing. I hear the yells of marines getting mowed down outside. I nod and run to my room I grab my rife and my armor I am just finished when a plasma grenade smashes my window. I dive out of the room and get to my feet. I look back and see a fire.

"Shit I that was so close!" I yell over the noise of fighting.

" Hurry up," He yells and I nod. He leads out of the house. I fire at a group of grunts Jake fires at them to and before to long they are all dead. We run towards a motor pool and I see elites blocking our path. "Shit," Jake says quickly. "God damn it!" He yells and fires. The elites turn to us the bullets not even bothering them.

"Look at these foolish humans this fight is over you are all dead but still they fight." An elite says I guess he is the leader because he is the biggest one. I fire at him and he laughs. He draws a sword. I hear my gun click I remove the clip and reach for another one but I realize too late that I am out of ammo.

"Jake I'm out of ammo." I tell him take a few steps back. He swears.

"I am on my last mag damn it." He says. The elites are almost to us easily walking through Jake's bullets. I fall to my knees and think it is all over.

"Finally a human finds his place." An elite laughs. The other laugh I realize that I have failed I wanted to protect my friends my family, my planet, and most of all Morgan I feel tears falling down my face and I snap. I let out a yell and raise to my feet I run straight at the elites. I hear Jake yell for me to stop. I am in swords length now and the elite swings I put my rifle up to block it. I am almost forced to my knees. But I push forward and off balance the elite. I slam the back off my assault rifle into the elites face. It staggers back I drop the rifle and pull my combat knife I jump at the staggered elite we fall to the ground and I shove the knife deep into the neck. Blood covers my armor and I turn to face the rest of the elites I few rounds from Jake makes one of the elites trip over itself I run forward at that elite and when it is raise to it's feet my knife finds it's way into the back of the elites neck. But it still stands and punches me. The wind flies out of me. I am thrown a feet back right next to the dead elite I killed earlier. I look for my knife and it is no where to be seen. While look I see an elite's sword next to me. I pick it up and turn it on. The elites start to laugh again. I run at the elite I had injury and swing the sword at it. However he blocks and slashes at me. I dodge to the right and I stab into the chest of the elite. Anger overcame and I lash out at the next elite. Jake fires and hits it right as he is bring the sword up to block and drops the sword. I stab through the elite. Three down two to go.

"You will pay for that human. " The leader growls he swings at me so fast I barely block. I yell and attack the elite. He easily blocks and attacks me I block but he cuts my left arm a little bit. I yell out in pain as it easily cut my armor. He punches me in the gut and I double over. The elite kicks me down I feel darkness falling over me my vision fading. I get on all fours and see a warthog driving through the chaos. Kasey and Tori were on it and slows in front of Jake who is fight and losing against the other elite. Kasey jumps out of the driver's seat and helps Jake push back the elite while Tory runs to me. She fires at the elite. He jumps at her she puts her gun up but the sword nearly cuts right through it. She takes a few steps back. He keeps pushing her back in till she is back up against the wall. She punches the elite and I see the elite raise its sword.

"No!" I yell and move faster than ever before. I swing at the elite's back but he turns and blocks. I swing again and he blocks and parries. I jump back out of the range of his sword. I get closer again and swings again faster than before and he barely block but he laughs. "I'll protect everybody!" I yell.

"Haha a worth opponent it will only be better when your blood stains the ground. I slash again and he backs up. He pushes forward knocking me back and we clash back and forth. I growl and I am gaining speed after every attack. The elite slowly down. My sword dances around his guard. I push forward and the sword sinks into the chest of the elite and he falls down. I fall to my knees. I hear cheering. I look around and see Marines and ODST had been watching my fight. I smile and pull off my helmet and stand up. I let out a yell and raise my helmet in the air. I look around and see that the marines had push the Covenant out and won the fight. I walk over to my squad.

"Rory you crazy son of a bitch. I can't believe you did that." Jake says. I laugh and rub my head.

"Rory thanks you saved my life." Tori says.

"No problem it was a walk in the park."

A few hours later we have fixed up the town a little bit. A soldier walks up to me. "Private Donahue?" he asks.

"Yes?"

"Come with me please." He tells me. I nod and follow him. He leads me deeper into the town and I arrive at a larger building. "All the way up second door on the right." I walk up the two flights of stairs and go into the second door. I look at the person behind the desk and I take a step back.

"Lt. Bosd?" I say and then after a second I salute.

"Rory good to see you. I heard what you did this afternoon. Killing three elites in hand to hand combat. Nearly unheard of but you did it. You have survived where everyone around you has died. You have MIA surround by enemies alone in your home town while it was been destroyed. Then even after that you were taken captive and you freed yourself." He lists my feats. "How do I ask this? We need a hero not Spartans but a normal human hero. How would you like to go on a suicide mission?" He asks me. I sigh. How could I say no?

"Sir I would be honored."

"Good. You will be outfitted with high class equipment and –"

"Wait sir I am going alone?" I ask. He nods.

"You are going onto a Covenant cruiser and you are to take it over and try and try out any other Covenant cruise you can. If you aren't able to take over the ship then well mission failed."

"You weren't kidding about the suicide part huh?"

"Well this is coming from the higher ups If you can do this by yourself it will show that the Covenant can be beaten and you die you are only one ODST." He laughs.

"Sir when do I leave?"

"Tomorrow. Get a good night of sleep you are going to need it. Oh yeah this top secret not even your squad can find out."

"Of course."

"Dismissed." I salute and walk out. I go back to my cabin. I get inside and see the rest of my squad relaxing in the living room. I sit down next to Jake.

"Well what a day huh?" I ask.

"You said it damn it what a long day." Kasey says and closes his eyes.

"Never know if this the last we can just relax like this you know." I say they agree and I go to bed shortly after.

I arrive at the Lt.'s office at 0630 and we leads me to a hanger of some sort. "So were is this equipment cause I need new armor there are cuts all over mine from that elite yesterday." He just laughs and keeps walking. We walk to a small room and I see what looks like normal ODST armor on the wall with an assault rifle next to it.

"Here it is. I know it looks the same but we have upgraded the armor and the assault rifle. The armor now has shields just like Spartans or Elites. It as well makes you movements faster and stronger. However not nearly the level of a Spartan and be careful with it. The assault rifle is modified to shoot a high caliber of bullets." He explains to me. I get into the new armor and I feel the effects kicking in. I grab the rifle and a normal auto mag. "Ok now then there is a Long Sword out fitted with a HEV launcher. Now that is how you are going to get in. We are going to fir a few Mac rounds into the ship and hello door. Now you have done that before haven't you?" I nod.

"Easy enough." I lie. I get into the Long Sword and into a HEV pod. Before I can say anything I feel the ship start to move. I start to get nervous but I relax I have to relax or I will die.

After 15 minutes or so I hear the pilot. "Hey solider you have about a minute left."

"Roger."

"Good luck you are going to need it." He says as I hear a count down begin.

"It is still that damn voice." I say.

"3… 2… 1… Launch!" I am sent into space again a feeling starting to become second nature. Before I do anything I feel a pod land. I blast the door open and I jump out. I see a few grunts I lift my rifle but I am unused to the speed so I lift it to much. I correct my aim and I squeeze the trigger. The recoil from the weapon is over double at what it used to be but I blow the grunts head off with one shot. I turn and spray the rest of the ground of grunts.

"Rory my name is Alice and I will outline your mission and keep you on track and what not." I hear in my radio.

"Uh … Hi," I reply.

"Ok to get to the bridge you need to go down that hallway, up a grav lift, and go down a long hallway."

"You make it sound so easy." I tell her. I start going down the hallway slowly with all senses alert. I turn to see two jackals with beam rifles aiming at me. I fire a few shots and tear through them. I keep going in till I find that grav lift. I jump into it. I see what is waiting for me at the top of the lift and I regret jumping up. Brutes and a shit load of them all turn to see me land a few feet from them. I throw a grenade at the middle of the group and fire my rifle. The group starts to fall apart. Then the grenade goes off. And I finish the rest of them. I reload "This rifle is great." I say to myself.

"Careful of jams it is still a prototype."

"What?! Great." I say and move on. Down the hallway I beam rifle hits me in the back and I fall over. I flip on to my stomach and fire at that bastard jackal. I get up and my shields regenerate. That shot still left one hell of a bruise. I run down the hallway. I see a large down in front of me as a get close it flies open and I find myself staring at a brute chieftain. He runs at me and hit me up against the wall. I drop my rifle but I pull my auto mag and fire right under his jaw. I fire three shots and it falls over. The rest of the Covenant forces on the bridge look at me and run because they are grunts and they don't have weapons. I run to a control panel. "Hey uh.. . Alice I at the bridge but I haven't been able to clear the ship."

"Don't worry if you look in you top right pocket there should be a program that can hack the ship then I will have full control." She tells me. I pull it out and she explains to me how to use it. "Now I am going to open the air locks so have your helmet on in till I tell you it is good."

"Alright." I hear the sound of all the air leaving the ship. A few minutes later it was over.

"Ok that's done now I will lock down the bridge so even if some survived they can't attack you."

"Ok now-"I get cut off by a laugh. I see a huge elite it pulls of a helmet and I see burn marks on its face.

"Your voice you are the one who did this to me!" It yells. I remember at the Covenant colony.

"You should be dead!" I say and I fire my auto mag. The bullets don't harm and it walks to me. The elite turn on its sword and I fire the rest of my clip into the elite. I pull out my knife and get ready but I have a feeling this one is going to be stronger than the others. The elite flies at me faster than I could react. I barely get y knife up to block it. The knife flies out of my hand and hits off the wall. I punch the elite in the face and backs off. He comes right back at me and swings his sword. Thanks to the new armor I dodge it. But I can't keep this up for long I turn and run. He grabs me and throws me against the same wall the brute had. I fall to my knees and grab my rifle.

"You think that little gun with save you?" The elite asks.

"It isn't so little anymore!" I yell and fire the entire clip into the elite its shields flare and the bullets rip into the chest of elite.

I sigh and walk over to the elite. I put one more into its head. "Stay dead this time."


	8. Chapter 8

I watch as the Covenant ship I boarded fires at another. The fight ends quickly because of the other ship's surprise. "Rory you have been boarded. Your job here is done leave now you only have a few minutes." Alice says into my radio.

"Ok. Where are the escape pods?" I ask.

"You need to go back the way you came. But when you get to the grav lift there is a door that you need to take and there are the pods. But that is also where the Covenant ship landed so be careful you made it this far don't die now," She says.

"Roger that." I say and I sprint to the grav lift and look around. There is a door to my left I open and it and I see the pods. I hear Covenant behind me I turn around and I beam rifle shot knocks me to the ground. The air is forced out of me. I see a grunt running at me with a needler. The grunt looks right at me and he fires. I lift my left hand up and a needle hits my hand and goes right through it. The needle hits out my visor and cracks it. I drop my assault rifle and throw a grenade. The Covenant run away from the grenade and I get up and run to the pod the door is closing when I second needle hits me right in the right shoulder. "Shit!" I yell and rip it out before in explodes. Blood pours out of the wound and I fall to the ground. "I'm in a pod, Alice." I say breathing heavy. I take off my helmet and I lift up my hand and look at the hole in my hand. "Shit this is bad. Fuck it hurts." Minutes go by and my vision is fading. "Alice I might not make it. I am hurt badly."

"Hold on Rory. There are only their way just a few minutes." I close my eyes and I drift off.

I open my eyes and see a white light. I look around and I am in a small room. I groan and sit up. I look at my left hand and it is wrapped out tight. "Hello?" I ask. I hear movement in another room. Lt. Bosd walks into the room.

"Rory I can't believe you finish your mission." He says."It is too bad your armor is beyond repair. But, that doesn't matter. You alone took down two Covenant cruisers."

"How bad is my hand?" I ask. He looks down at my hand.

"You broke most of the bones in your hand. Now your shoulder it is pretty bad too." He tells me. I look down at my hand.

"How long am I going to be out for?" I ask.

"At least 6 months the doctors tell me."

"NO! We could all be dead by then!" I yell. I wince in pain as my shoulder flares up. He looks at me sadly.

"I know. It is bad but we can't have you dying now. You are a hero everyone has heard about you."

"I rather fight! I can't just sit back. I don't need to be a hero." I yell.

"Relax son you just need some rest." I kick the blankets off me and swing my feet out of bed. I stand and fall to one knee.

"My legs are really weak. How long was I lying there?" I ask.

"Two weeks. You almost died you lost so much blood no one thought you were going to make it." I smile.

"Never underestimate me. I can over come a little hole that this." I say and get to my feet. "Sorry sir I don't mean to yell."

"It is fine I would be mad too." I sit back in bed. "Now I know that there are some people that would like to see you." He walks out of the door and my squad comes in.

"Rory." Jake says. "What the hell were you thinking?" He yells.

"I had to you don't know what was going on!" I fire back. "If you hadn't noticed we aren't winning this war."

"This is just like you-"Jake was cut off by Kasey.

"At least you're alive."

"Somehow." I laugh. "But I am out of action for a good few months."

"What?" Kasey yells. I nod.

"I got a needle through the hand and one in the shoulder. Broke every bone in my hand I guess." I say and lift up my useless hand.

"Wow that must have hurt."

"Like nothing ever before."

"Rory are you ok?" Tori asks. I nod.

"Nothing can ever stop me just you wait I be back kicking ass in no time." I lie to her. We told for a few hours and then they leave. "Great just great." I say and close my eyes and lean back in the bed.

"Rory toady we will be going over tactics since you can't do much else." Lt. Bosd tells me. Over the next few hours we go over operations like if my squad was surrounded by Covenant with no back up for hours how do you survive. That was his favorite one but we did many others. Over the next few days I was released from the hospital. Everyday I would go to Lt. Bosd office and talk strategy I listened to his wisdom and his knowledge. Slowly the week turn into months. There is a lull in the fighting for about four months and my hand is almost all better.

I am resting in my bed and I hear a blast go off in the barracks. I jump out of bed and grab my auto mag. I look at my cast on my left hand. I remember Lt Bosd telling me not to do anything stupid but I find myself running outside. It doesn't take me long to see what made the blast. There is Covenant drop ships everywhere and there are multiple fights going on all over the town we have been using as a base. Fire at a nearby grunt and it falls over. "Looks like I still got it." I run to where my squad has been staying. Explosions are going off everywhere. I run by it all and I see a group of three ODST fighting a horde of Covenant forces.

"Guys!" I yell and run to them and take over.

"Rory? What the hell are you doing you aren't better yet and you aren't in your armor." Jake yells.

"Helping." I yell back and fire at a jackal and it falls to the ground. I smile and fire again. Then a blast goes off near me. I find myself in the air. I get to my feet and see that the blast hit right in between all of us and everyone else is still down I guess I was the farthest away. I try to get back over to them but a fire as blocked the path. I swear and watch helplessly. Brutes walk over to them and pick them up. The brutes leave even though I fire at them. "No." I see one of the ODST break free and stab a brute. The ODST is hit away and the brute get into a drop ship. I run to the one ODST and rip of their helmet. "Tori? Can you hear me?" I ask. I try to pick her up I can't do it one handed so I rip off my cast. I lift her up and gasp as pain shoots through my hand.

I carry her inside. "Tori come on wake up." I says as I place her on a table. "I was supposed to protect everyone but now…" I can't finish I fall back and sit on the ground. The sounds of fighting are stronger than ever outside. I close my eyes and a tear falls out. I rub my eyes. "Why am I crying at a time like this?" I ask myself. A grunt runs inside the room and I reach for an assault rifle I hold in and fire. I te grunt falls but my hand feels like it is on fire. "I can't even fight!" A marine walks inside the room.

"Well if it isn't the big hero. Surely you remember me?" I look up.

"Dom?!? You're alive?" I mutter I smile. "You up for a mission I have to get my squad back!" He nods. "Ok first we have to get to my room and get my armor can you carry her?" Again he nods. So we take off. We reach my room in no time and I am suited up and ready to go. "Alright les go get a warthog." We head to the motor pool and kill the covenant in the way. "Here we go put her in the passenger's sit and strap her in then get on the gun I'll drive."

"Ok." I look on my HUD (Heads up display) I see the GSP locaters in Jake and Kasey are still working. I floor the warthog out of the base and follow the drop ship. I max out the warthog and cruise at that speed. We start to close in on their location but I realize that they have stopped moving. I drive up a hill and see why. There is Covenant all over it is like a make shift base. "Fuck." Dom says in the back.

"We do this fast in and out before they even know what happened." I spped down the hill and I see the guards take aim at us. "Fire! Now!" I yell and Dom opens up. We blow past the gate and turn to get out for the main part off the base. I see a large building in the back. "Looks that's were the guys are."

I look to my right and see Tori starting to move. "Tori don't freak out but we are in a Covenant base on a search and rescue mission." She opens her eyes and jumps.

"What the fu-" She starts.

"Relax" I say she nods. The roar of the machine gun makes talking nearly impossible so we stay quiet. We reach the building and we get off the warthog. I run to the door and kick it in. A brute has his back turned. I fire the assault rifle into his back and he falls. The padding from the armor makes it a little bit less painful. Dom runs by me and kills a jackal and two grunts. Tori brings up the rear and covers our back. We clear the build as we look for Jake and Kasey. We reach a room in the back and I hear yelling. I lift my hand up and we all stand in front of the door. I raise my hand and motion three two one. On one we run inside the door. The room has a brute and a lot of grunts. But somehow we caught them off guard and we mow them down easy.

"Jake are you ok?" I ask and walk over to him. He is beaten badly.

"Rory what the hell are you doing here?"

"Helping"


	9. Chapter 9

"Well now that you are here you got a escape plan?" Jakes yells over the fire of the assault rifles.

"Sort of." I reply and he shakes his head and fires at a grunt. "We need to get to the warthog."

"There is five of us. Warthog sits three." Jake says. I sigh and fire at a brute and he hides behind cover. "Ok we need to make a break for it or we will be over run." I agree and we all get ready to sprint towards the exit. Jake counts down to zero and we break cover and run for the door. I take the lead and fire a grunt who couldn't get out of the way fast enough. I run into the first room and I see the warthog from the window. As I turn I see a brute at the door way with a spiker. I raise my rifle and warn the others but not fast enough. The brute and I fire at the same time I hit him in his unprotected throat but he fires three times before he goes down. Every spike hit Jake, the closest one to the brute, nearly point blank in the chest. Jake is lifted off his feet and slams to the ground.

"Dom grab Jake and lets get the hell out of here." I say and turn to leave the building. The warthog is being guarded by grunts and I open the door and fire at them. We dispatch the grunts and I run into the drivers sit. "Strap Jake in up front and the three of you can sit in the back. But you probably wont be able to use the gun sitting like that." I hear them agree and in no time we are driving through the base.

"Ghost on our six!" Kasey yells. I hear the three in the back fire at the ghost and I see a bright blue plasma burst shot past the warthog. The end of the base is only a hundred feet in front of us so I slam down on the pedal and pray we don't get hit.

"Rory drive faster!" I hear from the back.

"I can't why what is going on?" I look in the rear view mirror and see a massive wrath tank. "Holy Shit!" The Wrath fires and I see the plasma quickly catching us I turn hard right and the blast from the plasma makes a hole in the ground where we just were. We exit the base and I sigh out in relief but I keep us moving as fast as the warthog can. We motor back to our base fast as possible and we see smoke on the horizon. The smoke gets closer and closer. I slow down when I see the base but I look as we get closer my stomach drops. We enter the camp and everything is quite, No fighting, no scream, no nothing. I turn off the warthog outside the medical station, "Wait here I check inside." I say and grab my rifle off my back. I open the door and find doctors dead on the ground no mercy was given to them. "Hello anyone in here?" I call out after a while of silence I move deeper in. The medical supplies are scattered all over the place. I look around and find some bio foam and grab it. I run back outside and over to Jake. I take is helmet off and his eyes are close. I reach to his neck to find a pulse its there just barely. "Jake stay with me!" I say and I inject the bio foam into him his pulse gets stronger. "We need to find a doctor to fix him up he wont last long like this" I tell the guys in the back.

"Where is everyone?" Kasey asks.

"Just look around man." Dom says coldly. I do and I see marine bodies scattered all over the place.

"Damn." Kasey mutters. "Now what? What do we do?" He looks to me.

"We need to find out if there are any survivors. And where then went." I swing around to the drivers sit and pick up the radio in the warthog. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?" Silence is the only thing that greets us. "Anyone! Damn it!" I yell at the radio and I get out of the warthog. I hear a loud noise in the sky and I see a spirit drop ship. "Shit inside now!" I point to the drop ship. "They must have followed us." We rush inside and I grab Jake. The medical station is on a small two story building and there is no back way out. I look at my rifle and swear the ammo counter is at ten and I don't have any extra mags. "Anyone got ammo?"

"Yo I got you," Dom says he swings the bag off his back. He opens it and it is full with assault rifle mags.

"I love you man." I say and reach off a few extra mags. He laughs and look out the front window.

"They found the hog." He says. "Shit they are unloading"

"When they are out fire at them and Kasey fire the rocket at the drop ship hopefully the wont send out a distress signal."

"Roger" they reply. As the last grunt jumps out we fire bullets rip through the confused grunts and Kasey fires both rockets at the drop ship. His rounds strike true and the drop ship explodes. I start to feel better but I see two more ships incoming. They are on our position in no time and we fire at the Covenant outside. More drop ships come and soon enough we are completely surrounded. I fire my rifle as fast as it can go and I drop grunt after grunt. I fire at the brute leading the grunts and he drops dead as the armor piercing rounds tear through his armor. I change my clip out and fire at a group of jackals moving up with their shields activated. "Frag out," I yell and the frag blows up behind the jackals and the ones that weren't killed from the grenade are ripped to shreds from my bullets. I have to reload again I see more grunts moving up. I spray their line and they drop dead.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a green flash moving towards the building. It hit's the wall and knocks Tori off her feet. "You ok?" I yell over my constant firing.

"I'm good." She says and slowly gets to her feet. I nod and focus back to my window. Slowly I start to realize that this could be it. With no evac in the foreseeable future and a Covenant base right down the road pretty much. Also our ammo supply is getting lower and lower if it wasn't for Dom we would be out by now.

"Kasey get Jake's sniper and get to the second floor. Don't waste rounds on grunts take down the brutes."

"Gotcha" He lifts Jake's rifle off the ground and runs up the stairs. I feel hope leaving me and I fire at a grunt that ran right at us. I sigh as I reload and the Covenant sends another wave of grunts at us. They grunts don't last long and there is a lull in the fighting.

"Cover me." I run outside to the warthog and I'm glad I parked it right next to the door. I grab the radio, "To all UNSC forces in the area. I'm not sure anyone can hear me but we are getting hit from all sides and we are running out of time!"

"Hello? Who is this?" I hear from the radio. I'm about to response when I see a grunt with a fuel rod cannon aiming right at me. I dive out of the warthog and as soon as I do it blows up and I am showered in the heat and metal. I fall back inside the medical station.

"Shit I almost got help." I tell them. I fire out of the window and hit the grunt with the fuel rod cannon in the head. "Asshole!" I yell at the body. Another drop ship is incoming and my heart sinks a little lower than it was. "Don't let up give them everything you got!" I yell as I see jackals and brutes jump down off the drop ship. I grab the rockets Kasey fired and I reload and I take a shot at the jackals before the shields go on. The rocket hits and the jackals are destroyed. The brutes try to take cover from the assault rifles unloading on them some do but nearly half are picked off before they can. Kasey takes out the brutes that made it to cover with the sniper rifle. I throw down the empty rockets and pick up my rifle. The brutes use the grunts to cover them and another wave of grunts are rushing at us.

"RORY!" I hear and I am shoved to the ground. I feel weight fall on me.

"Dom?" I ask. I shake him trying to get him off me. I see blood dripping from his chest. I get to my feet and roll him on his back. "Shit no. Kasey jackal sniper out there be careful he got Dom." I look at the wound in Dom's chest the beam rifle had hit Dom right in the heart. Tori looks at me.

"Is he alright?"

"He is gone nothing we can do. Rest in peace," I say. I grab his dog tags and close his eyes.

"Sniper down" Kasey informs us. I look back out my window and I see grunts moving up. I lift my rifle and fire the grunts scream but one throws a plasma grenade and it flies right into my window I dive behind a desk and the grenade goes off. I get up and see a grunt right next to the window. I fire at it and it drops dead.

"They just keep coming." Kasey says "Were fucked it three verse and army."

"Shut it and do your job." I say. I start to reload and I reach for a mag but I don't have any on me. I look in Dom's ammo bag and there are about ten left I grab half and I get back to the window and firing at grunts.

"Shit Brute chieftains" Kasey says from the window upstairs.

"Really not what we need." I say and I hear Kasey firing the sniper fast.

"Got one." I hear him say and just then the door blows open. A brute with a hammer knocks the door off the hinges. I turn and fire as does Tori. It looks right at Tori and raises the hammer.

"Hey asshole!" I yell trying to get it's attention. It doesn't even give me a second thought and swings it hammer at Tori. She is knocked off her feet and I yell. The brute turns to me. I fire at the brute's knees and it stops moving and falters. I take this time to fire the rifle into its face. It drops dead and I rush to Tori. "Tori! Tori?'" I slide next to her. I lift her on to my lap. "Hey Tori wake up." I take off her helmet and her eyes are closed but her pulse is strong. I put her helmet back on and move her behind a desk for cover.

"Is she alright?" Kasey asks.

"Knock out cold but otherwise yeah."

"Good. Rory we aren't going to make are we."

"No I doubt it." I fire out the hole where the door used to be and take down a few grunts. I check on Jake he is barely hanging in there. I take my eyes off the front of the building to check him and when I look back it is completely full with Covenant. I fire half hearted at them. Its over I know it two men can't kill all these Covenant. I close my eyes and I hear something else moving in the air. I figure it is another spirit drop ship so I ignore it. Even thought I'm firing constantly the grunts make it to the front of the medical station. One is about to walk in when I fire a heavy machine gun firing and it takes out a dozen grunts in the street I walk over to the window and see a pelican. "YEAH!" I yell out mess those shit heads up." I yell. I reach into my bag to grab a green flare to signal them. I throw it out the window and it moves to our building. It lands right next to the downed warthog. "Kasey move it lets go."

"Roger." He runs down the stairs and lifts Jake, and boards the Pelican. I grab Dom's body and carry it over to the pelican and I hand him off to Kasey. I turn back and lift Tori and walk back to the pelican. I get on and the pelican lifts up. "We made it!" Kasey cries out.

"Somehow." I look out the back hatch off the pelican and see a lot of dead Covenant on the road. I look over to Tori and I take her helmet off. Her eyes open slowly.

"Am I dead?" She asks and then looks at me.

"No you think I would let you die?" I say.


	10. Chapter 10

I smile as the pelican flies away from the destroyed base. I look at Jake who is barely hanging on and I turn to see Dom's body. My smile fades and I shake my head. "You saved my life I'll never forget you." I whisper. I stand up and make my way to the cockpit. "How did you find us?"

"Someone sent a message out about being surrounded. I assume it was your squad."

"Thanks for the pick up." He gives me a thumbs up and I walk back to my seat.

"Now what?" Kasey asks. I shrug my shoulders.

"I don't know."

"Good." He says sarcastically.

"You guys can get some shut eye. We wont be back to Gamma base for an hour." I don't need to be told twice and I close my eyes.

"Wake up we are here Rory." Tori says. My eyes snap open. The pelican touches down in a hanger and I stand to get off the drop ship. I walk out of the ship the first thing I see is a high ranking officer waiting for us. I see a the symbol for general on his collar. I snap of a salute.

"Sir!" I say. I hear Kasey and Tori do the same.

"At ease troopers." He replies. "I am General Hoover. And you must be wondering why I am meeting you like this."

"Yes sir."

"Well if we boys didn't realize it we are in a heap of shit. There is something going on in Africa something big. Command is requesting all able marines head there now. It appears the Covenant are doing the same. I'm ask you three to go there. You have seen heavier combat then most and you have proven yourselves again and again." Before I think about it I find myself nodding.

"Sir yes Sir. It would be an honor." I say.

"Good. Your flight leaves shortly." He hand me papers that outline what to do and where to go. I salute and he walks away. I see a medics taking care of Jake in the pelican.

"No rest for the weary." I say. Kasey laughs and I walk over to the medics taking care of Jake. "How is he?"

"Bad but he should make it."

"When he wakes up tell him we will be back for him." The medic nods and we walk to the shuttle that will bring us to Africa.

"Wonder what's going on there." Tori says.

"Who knows better yet who cares command wants us there and they get what they want." I say coldly. The past couple of days have made me feel like shit. I don't feel anything inside.

"Rory's got a point." Kasey chimes in. I feel the shuttle lifting up and we start on our way to Africa.

"E.T.A half and hour." The pilot informs us. The flight has been quite everyone reflecting on the last mission. I look at Tori and she is looking out the window. Then I feel something in the pit of my stomach. I look away quick and wonder what that was. The last part of the flight is boring and uneventful. We dock with a ship and I look around confused. "Hey aren't we going to Africa?"

"Change of plans this is where you are supposed to be." I say ok and I head off the ship. We are in the ships hanger and I see an elite out of the corner of my eye.

"Elite!" I yell and raise my rifle. The elite isn't alone and the group of them aim at me.

"Whoa! Whoa! Relax they are allies!" I hear some call out. I look at the voice and it is a marine. I slowly lower my rifle and so do the elites. I walk to the marine.

"Split jaws are our allies now?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah I know took me by surprise when I first heard about it too."

"Yeah a little warning would have been nice. Anyways do you know what's going on. We just got here we were fighting in America up till now."

"I'm not sure rumor has it that there is some sort of slip space abnormity that the Covenant went it to. I guess they are retreating from Earth. And I guess we are chasing them. But who knows that is just a rumor."

"You don't say. Wow I didn't think the Covenant ever retreated."

"Yeah neither did I. Well nice meeting you …"

"Rory." I say.

"Kendral, Nice meeting you Rory."

"Yeah you too Kendral." The marine walks away and I look at the rest of my squad.

"What do you guys think?"

"This is too fucking weird." Kasey says. I laugh and I turn to look around the hanger. The marines and the elites are avoiding each other. I see one marine take some covenant weapons and an elite take some of out weapons.

"Maybe we can get along after all." I say.

"Hopefully elites could be great allies." Tori says. I feel the ship start to move and I sigh and shake my head.

"This is going to be intense I guarantee it." I tell them.

"Oh yeah." Kasey says happily.

"Don't sound to happy Kasey," Tori smacks him in the back of the head.

"Oww." We laugh and wait for the mission to start.

I hear the intercom come on and it tells us to getting into our assigned pelicans. I look on our paper and see find the pelican we need. "Over guys I found-" I look inside and there is a mass of green armor. "H-holy shit a Spartan." I breath out. He looks at me and I walk on the pelican. I sit oppose him on the pelican. Kasey and Tori catch up to me and sit next to me.

I stand up and snap off a salute. "Sir it is an honor to serve with you."

He salutes back and doesn't say anything. I sit and soon enough the pelican is off.

The Spartan is the first one off the pelican and I follow right behind him. I look around and see nothing. The Spartan moves up and I follow him. We are lead to a cliff over view of a make shift covenant camp. There are mostly brutes with some grunt back up. I lie prone with a sniper rifle. I see the Spartan do the same.

"On my mark." He says. "Three two one, Mark." He fires three times and three brutes go down. I fire and hit a brute in the head. The rest of my squad fire as well the camp is pretty much is neutralized before they can react. The Spartan slides down the hill he puts the sniper on his back and swings his assault rifle off his back He fires at the remaining grunts all dead before they can get a shot off.

"Wow." I whisper to my squad. I get up and follow him down the hill. We move up deeper into Covenant controlled area. Covenant forces are heavier and heavier the deeper we get but the Spartan takes care of all of it. I have never seen anyone move the way he does. But he moves on head with out us on special orders from command. I sigh.

"I wish he could have stayed." I say.

"Yeah me too." Tori agrees. We are given a warthog and we are waiting at a door in a column of scorpion tanks. The door opens and we start to drive through. "

"ODST wolf team scout ahead."

"Yes sir." I say and drive the warthog ahead of the rest of the column. We drive over some weird bridge and fine the exit on the other side. I scan the area and I see plenty of Covenant armor. "This is wolf team We got a lot of Covenant armor ahead. "We have been spotted engaging." Kasey fires the machine gun at the ghost flying to us. It doesn't last long and we drive down a slope. I see a large structure ahead. "Something doesn't feel right," I hear the tanks firing at the covenant but the structure seemingly turns to look at us. "Shit Scarab!" I yell. The main cannon on the scarab charges up and fires at us. I pull the e-brake and slide to the right get the warthog barely out of the way. I see it charging again. But then it falls down and starts to flash a red light. The Spartan jumps down off the scarab and it explodes. "Damn his good."

We get the order to secure an LZ at our current position. So we hold up in a open area near the down scarab. "I don't like being in the open like this," I say and I remember who Dom had died from a sniper.

"I Don't think anyone does." Kasey says.

"I wonder how Jake is." I say thinking about him.

"He is probably bull shit at us for leaving him behind." Tori laughs. I laugh too and I relax a little bit.

"Contact! CONTACT! 3 o'clock " I hear a marine yell. I turn to my right and see a wrath tank and grunts running next to it.

"Kasey on the gun!" He was already ahead of me and he starts to fire at the wrath. I fire at the grunts. The wrath turns to Kasey and fires. "Get out of there now Kasey. HE starts to move and the warthog is turned into scrap. "Kasey!" only silence greets me. I fire at the wrath. "Asshole!" The wrath explodes when I marine fires a rocket and I run to the warthog. I see Kasey laying a few feet from the wreck. I rush to him and flip him onto his back.

"I'm alive." he coughs. "Think I broke my leg though. I look at his leg and his bone is stick out of the side of it.

"Shit yeah you did. You lucky bastard."

"I don't feel too lucky." He coughs again.

"You could be like the hog." He looks to the warthog.

"Good point."

"Sit tight I'll get a medic." I get up and run to a medic. "Hey my friend has a broken leg he needs some help." He follows me to Kasey and looks down at him.

"Shit son you really messed up your leg. We aren't going to be able to fight. But we have a med evac coming." I bends down and gives Kasey some pain killers. No soon does he pull the needle out does a pelican touch down. A marine hops out the back.

"Load the wound on board." I lift Kasey up and he wraps his arm around my neck we limp to the pelican. He is aboard and he looks at me.

"Don't go dieing out in this shit hole." He yells over the roar of the pelican engine.

"I hadn't planned on it." I say and give him a thumbs up. The pelican lifts up and Tori comes over.

"So its just us now." She says and looks at me. I take off my helmet and take a deep breath off fresh air.

"Yup just two of us in wolf team now. We have to be more careful and get each other's back"

"Of course." I look at the large tower in the distant and put my helmet on.

"I feel like we are close now. To it being over."


	11. Chapter 11

-1 "Alright Marines Listen up." I look to the voice. I see a marine in normal BDUs but he is smoking a cigar. "The Covenant know where coming for them. They are afraid of us and they made some sort of barrier. But we are going to let that stop us there are three towers." He points to the tower I saw earlier. "We have the task to take that one down. The Master Chief is going to take down another and the Elites will get the last one." He looks at the handful of the remaining marines. "Now lets get the rest this shit done." He finishes and I see the pelicans move to pick us up. A pelican lands in front of us and Tori and I get on.

We lift off and a few minutes past uneventfully. "Strap yourselves in it about to get a little bumpy." I hear the pilot yell from the front. I don't hesitate and I pull the safety belt over me and clip it in. Tori looks to me and I know she is feeling worried. I give her a thumbs up and the pelican jerks violently to the right. "Shit," The pilot mutters. Again the pelican jerks this time to the left. A large bang comes from the side of the pelican and it spins the pelican almost completely around. "We are hit. Losing control shit." I feel the pelican losing height and speed. "We are going to down! I repeat we are going down. Get ready for a rough landing marines." Warning lights start flashing a loud beeping is coming form the computer.

"FUCK! We are going to die!" I hear a marine yell. I look around wildly.

"GRAB HOLD OF SOMETHING THIS IS IT!" The pilot yells. I reach for anything to grab but before I can we slam into the ground and my vision blacks out.

"Rory…. Rory….. Ro-" I hear coming from a long way away. "Watch our flank!" I slowly open my eyes. I am on a beach and I see an ODST over me.

"Tori?" I ask. The ODST looks at me and offers me a hand up. I grab it and I am lifted to my feet.

"Good I thought I lost you." She hands me a assault rifle. I take and look around.

"Where are we?" I ask and take cover behind the downed pelican.

"Good question but the Covenant aren't to happy we are here."

"Great just what I needed a nice vacation on the beach." I joke. I hear her laugh.

"We have pick up on the way ten minutes out." I look over the beach there are three marines exchanging fire with covenant.

"This is all that made it?" She nods and I fire my rifle to the Covenant's cover. "Shit. So much for that tower." The Covenant sends grunts to weaken our line but they are mowed down in no time. I shoot a grunt in the forehead in drops dead. Ten minutes past and I see the pelican coming. "There it is." I yell over the fighting. The Covenant however see it to. A salvo of fuel rod cannons greet the pelican.

"LZ is too hot. You need to relocate I can't get to you." The pelican's pilot tells us over the radio.

"Shit, Working on it." I reply to the pelican.

"I'll look for a cold LZ and send you the location."

"Roger that we'll fight our way out of here." I look at the four other soldiers with me. "Ready to move?"

"Yeah!"

"Yes."

"Let's do this."

"I'm ready." I nod and I wait for a brake in the Covenant's fire. I break cover with support fire coming from behind me. I reach the Covenant line with a marine right on me six. We jump over their cover and fire at the closest Covenant soldiers. The grunts run scared and the battlefield becomes very chaotic. I see a marine take a spiker's bayonet in the gut and it is rip up to his throat. I throw a covenant plasma grenade I found at the brute who killed him. The plasma grenade hits the brute right in the stomach and it is vaporized.

We push through the weakened Covenant line and we reach the wooded area behind the beach head. "You are on a small island marines. The beach on the other side of you is clear if you can get there I will pick you guys up."

"Wilco." I say and I lead the group quietly through the jungle. I hear a branch break and hold up my arm. I look to the sound and I see a brute tearing through the jungle at high speeds. "Watch it! 2 o'clock brute." I call out and I turn to it. I raise my rifle and fire at the brute. The others engage the brute as well. However, the brute powers though the bullets and tackles a marine to the ground.

"Get him off me! Jesus Christ SAVE ME!" He screams out. I run to the side of the brute and fire point blank at the brute. The brute lifts his arm in the air and slams it on the marines chest. It falls down onto the now silent marine. I roll the brute off and see the marines chest caved in where he had been hit.

"Shit. We have to keep moving. The others heard that." I say and I start to run. The small jungle ends and we reach the other beach. I see the pelican and I wave it down. The pelican begins to move towards the beach. "Hurry I can hear Covenant moving to our position."

" Ok hold on trooper." The pelican lands and we run to it. I hear the distinct sound of a beam rifle. I look to my right and see the last marine get the round in the head.

"Shit run Tori." I yell. I turn and jump into the pelican Tori is right behind me. "UP! Up get us out of here." The pelican lifts up and I drop down into one of the chairs. I take of my helmet and rub the sweat off my forehead. "Damn it." I sigh and rest my head back. "Pilot where are we going?" I ask.

"The three towers are down. We are pushing forward to the Covenant stronghold inside the barrier."

"How many people do we have left?"

"A handful of squads but I hear we still have a Spartan."

"Good we are going to need him."

We ride the pelican for a short time and then we are dropped off at a rally point. Tori and I walk over to the person in charge.

"Sir. ODST Wolf team reporting in."

"Just the two of you?" I nod and he looks around. "Alright then I got a perfect job for you two." He points to a mongoose ATV. "Get on that. Find a marine with a rocket and use the rocket on the back."

"Roger that." Tori goes off to find the rocket and I run up to the mongoose. "Hmm I haven't ever driven one of these." I say to myself. I sit down in the driver's spot. I turn the engine on and it roars to life. "Shouldn't be to hard."

"What did you say Rory?"

"Huh? Oh uhhh nothing." I lie. "Come on hop on." She shakes her head and hops on the back with the rocket.

"Alright listen up Marines we are about to kick the covenant off this so called "Ark" this may just decide the war so every fight with all you got! Alright move out." A the officer yell. I gun the throttle and the mongoose speed off head. I look around.

"Is that snow?" I ask.

"Looks like it." I slow down around a corner and I see a gauss warthog blow past me.

"Jesus that guy is in a hurry to die I guess." I speed back up and we start to head down a hill. "Holy shit two Scarabs!" I yell over my radio. I move the mongoose as fast as it can go. "Tori I'm going right under it fire at the knees!"

"You are what?" She yells.

"Just do it!" The scarab charges it main cannon aiming right at us. But the little mongoose is too fast and we make it under it. Tori fires twice but only one hit's the target. I drift the mongoose to get another shot on it. But the other scarab fires it main cannon right at us. "HOLD ON!" I yell and the plasma misses the mongoose but the shockwave knocks me clear off the mongoose. I feel myself roll end over end and skid to a stop. I grit my teeth in pain. I feel like I broke every bone in my body. I see one of the scarabs explode and shortly after the other goes down as well. But I can't make myself get up. I slowly move my head around and I see another ODST lying a few feet from me.

"Tori," I cough. I roll onto my belly and crawl over to her. "Tori." I shake her arm. I see the battle still raging on around me and I try to get to my feet. I slowly get onto my knees and lift myself up right. "Tori you need to get up now please!" I say. She moans and looks around.

"What happened?"

"We almost died." She raises to her feet with my help. Together we limp backwards out of the fight. When get out of the middle of the fight we fall down onto the snow. There is a medic not to far from us. Tori however blacks out again. "MEDIC!" I try to yell but I cough. He hears me still and runs over to us. "She is hurt." I say.

"What happened?"

"We went for a joy ride and ended up get throw by a scarab." He looks her over.

"She'll be find but she needs a doctor. There is a med evac coming soon. How about you? How are you feeling?"

"I'm good to go I think she took the worst of it." I lie.

"Alright. Good we need everyone we can get. I'll wait with her you get back into the fight." I nod and reach for my assault rifle but I grab air.

"Shit I must of lost it." The medic hands me his.

"I think you will do more good with it than I will." I thank him and run back into the fight. I run to a marine.

"What's going on?"

"The chief inside with an elite they are tracking down the Covenant leader. We have standing orders to protect the tower so now more Covenant get in."

"Ok." I take cover behind a warthog. Time pasts and I see a pelican take the wounded out. I feel myself drifting in and out of sleep there haven't been any attacks. Then I hear an assault rifle firing. Which causes others to fire.

"Shit not them! it's the FLOOD!" I hear someone yell in horror. "We need an evac now!" The same marine yells. I look at the field and I see little pod things move towards us. I fire at them and they pop in one shot.

"Evac in five minutes." I hear in my radio. I fire at the flood but for everyone I kill five more takes its place. The flood are quickly approaching our line even with everyone firing at them. I hop on the warthogs machine gun and fire into the line of the flood. I mow them down and for a while it seems like we will hold the line but slowly but surely the advance closer and closer. "Evac one minute keep it up!"

The flood are almost right on top of us and I keep the gun firing. "30 Sec-" I turn to see a flood pod jump onto the marines head. Then more jump at the marine and I spray the flood and the marine with the warthog's gun. I see three pelicans almost here.

"I am not dieing here!" I yell and a flood pod jumps at me. I roll of the warthog and the flood pod lands right in front of me. I slam my boot down on it and it gets crush under my weight. The pelican lands behind our line and we fall back. But the flood jump onto the backs of many marines as they turn to run. I walk backwards to the pelican and I fire at the flood as they jump at me. I step on to the pelican and the door slams closed. "Wait there is still marines out there!" I yell at the pilot.

"No time," He says coldly I turn to sit down and see only four others on the pelican. The pelican raises up and I feel us traveling at high speeds.

"What now?"

"We are getting out of here."

"What?"

"We are going home the Master Chief and the Arbiter killed the covenant leader."

"No shit? And here I thought I was going to die."


	12. Chapter 12

-1 The pelican is pushing its limits as we race back to the ship that will get us out of here. I groan in pain as my adrenaline starts to wear off. The four other marines look shocked and horrified. I shake the images out of my head but when I close my eyes I see the flood killing everything in its path. I take my helmet of and hold my head in my hands. I lean back in my sit and let out a long sigh. The pelican jerks to a stop and the drifts to the ground. I reach for my helmet and put into as I step of the pelican.

I look around to see a decent sized ship with marines and other members of the ships crew rushing about doing their jobs. I start to look around for Tori and Kasey doth of whom were injured at some point in the last few fights. It takes me awhile but I find a makeshift tent behind the ship acting as a medical station. I walk in and see Kasey with a cast on his leg and Tori lying in a bed. "Hey guys how are you feeling?" I ask casually.

"Oh my God your still alive?" Tori asks shocked.

"Well duh. What could stop me?" I laugh the others join in. Kasey shakes his head.

"Hey look I thought I was unstoppable but look here." He says and points to his leg. I laugh.

"Yeah but between you and me I am lucky." I say and I am about to say something when I hear the roar of an assault rifle. I look to the sound and I take my rifle off my back.

"FLLOOOODDDD!" I hear someone yell terrified.

"Tori help Kasey inside the ship." I say and I race out of the ten. It doesn't take me long to see what is going on. The flood have surround the ship and it is not just the pods anymore . There are elites turned flood and marine turned flood.

"Fall back to the ship all able body soldiers keep the flood off the ship at all costs!" I hear someone yell. I rush to the ships opening and set up there. I fire a flood marine and he pulls through the hail of lead. I see Tori and Kasey move by and get on the ship. I keep firing at the flood and I take one down.

"Son of a bitch these guys are tough!" I hear a marine shout, I turn and fire at the next closest flood. Tori runs up nest to me.

"What are you doing here?" I yell at her.

"Kasey is safe and I feel better I just needed a little rest."

"Fine lets do it." I say and together we drop another flood marine. I see another and I turn to fire. However, this one has a gun and he fires at me. I feel pain shoot up and down my left arm. I throw a frag grenade at the flood and it gets blown away. I shake my arm out it seems my armor took almost all the impact.

"Watch your flank Rory!" I hear Tori cry out and I am lifted off my feet and slammed to the ground. I see and flood elite standing over me. It slams my chest with its foot and I feel the air rush out of my lungs. Its rises its foot to stomp again. I raise my rifle only to have it kicked from my hands. My rifle flies into the chaotic battle field. I try to crawl backwards but it grabs me and slams me against the ship. I close my eyes and let the monster slam me again and again. The past few hours of fighting and the mongoose crash has take everything I have. I reach of my combat knife and slam it into the monster's neck. It howls and drops me to the ground. My legs feel rubber like and I fall to ground, I struggle to my feet. The flood elite rips the knife from its neck and throws it to the ground. "Rory!" I hear Tori yell but she is busy fight flood herself so she can't help.

The flood kicks me in the chest and I am sent on to my ass. I rise to my feet and the flood slams me again. I get sent backwards a few feet and trip. I fall to the ground and land on something hard. I reach of what I landed on. It is an assault rifle. I level the rifle at the flood and drain the clip into the monster's head. I hear the click signaling an empty clip. But, the monster still takes another step.

"You should be dead!" I yell and throw the rifle at him. I wipe out my magnum and I fire the rest of my sidearm into the monster. It finally drops dead. I let out a sigh and I struggle to my feet. "Damn it" I cough and limp to my rifle I throw at it. I reload and limp over the ships door. I see the door closing and the ship starts to roar to live. "Hey!" I cough and slam on the door. They pay no attention to me and the ships rises off the ground. "NO!" I yell. I switch my radio to team com.

"Tori? Where are you?" I ask over the radio.

"I am near the back of the ship."

"We have a huge problem." I say looking around to make sure no flood is going to sneak up on me. "Turn to look at the ship."

"What? Where is it going!" She screams.

"Its is leaving. We couldn't hold the ship against these things. Meet me by the medical tent."

"En route." I limp as fast as I can to the tent. Shortly have I get there Tori as well gets to the tent.

"All marines left on the ground rally at the medical we have to stay together." I say to the remaining marines. I hear a few people agree and say the are on the way I kept shooting at a flood and soon enough there are about ten marines and two ODST at the tent.

The fight keeps raging on and for awhile we hold the lone with out much trouble but as the fight keeps on going we lose a few marines and we are all low on ammo.

"Shit this is bad." I hear marine. "We are never going to win." He cries. "I have one bullet left."

"No!" His friend yells but it is to late the marine puts his magnum to his head and pulls the trigger. The marine falls to the ground and I turned shocked. I fire at the flood in a hopeless fight. I hear a click and I sling my rifle across my back and pull out my sidearm.

"We need to do something." Tori says. I look around there are only four marines left out of the ten that started this fight.

"I have an idea." A marine speaks up.

"Well lets hear it." I snap at him. He reaches into the pack on his back and pull out what appears to be a suit case.

"It is a small tact nuke." It takes me second to figure out what he is saying.

"What no. We can't kill ourselves." A marine shouts out.

"You want to be one of them!" He shouts. "Cause I don't I would rather die!"

"We can use it as last resort only." I say. We all agree and start to shoot at the flood again.

My entire body feels heavy and it hurts all over. I slump on against a chair in the tent. I breath heavy and my eyes are closing slowly. My sidearm slips out of my hand and falls to the ground. I look to the suit case, with a push of the button it will all be over. We would not feel a thing. I shake my head and I try to get to my feet but I fall to my knees.

"Damn it!" I yell. "Why can't I stand!" I yell. "GOD DAMN IT! I'm not going to die. Not after everything I have been through!" I struggle to my feet. I take a deep breath and I use the side of the tent to help me stay up. I look over the battle field. There is a lull in the fighting. The flood are staying back. I look in the tent for medical supplies. I find what I am looking for: An adrenaline shot and some biofoam. I inject both into me and I feel better. I pick up my magnum I dropped and I wait for the flood to make the next move. Slowly but surely they start to fall back. I look around confused.

"Something must be calling them away." A marine ponders.

"Hell I don't care lets go to the pelican over there." I say pointing to the pelican that brought to the ship in the first place. We all break cover and make our way to the pelican. Tori gives me a hand as I limp to the ship. I hope into the pilot's seat and power it up. I lift off the ground and take us up into space. Tori seats nest to me in to the copilot's seat. "What are the chances we get killed going through that thing?" I ask.

"High." She says calmly.

"Good to know." I say and punch the pelican as fast as it can go. "Hold on tight marines this shit could get bumpy." I fly the pelican as fast as it can go into the portal.

The pelican shakes all over and for a second it looks like it will not make. But the next moment we and on the Earth and we are spinning out of control. "Sorry I am not a pelican pilot prepare for a crash landing!" I yell and the pelican slams into the ground.

Slowly I open my eyes. I cough and look around. I am still in the wrecked pelican. I see Tori next to me she is slowly coming to. I look in the back the marines are basically unharmed. I try to get up but I feel something holding me in place. I look down at my chest where the pressure is and I see a steel rod in my gut. "Well shit. I guess I can only crash land a pelican before something bad happens." I cough and blood covers my helmet's visor from the inside. I take my helmet off and sigh. "Mayday Mayday, We have a pelican down near the portal pilot-" I cough more blood. "Not looking good for him." I thank God I used that biofoam before we got on the pelican or I could be dead right now.

I hear moaning next to me. "Rory?" Tori asks.

"Yeah?"

"Did we make it?"

"Yeah-" I cough more blood up. "You made it."

"What do you mean?" She finally looks at me. "No….No this can't be."

"'Fraid so." My vision is fading and my eyes feel heavy. "I'll be fine like always I just need some sleep." I say and my eyes slam shut.


	13. Chapter 13

-1 Tori's POV

I look over to Rory and he is being impaled, my breath gets caught in my throat. My eyes start to sting and I take off my helmet. I throw it off to the side and fight to release my harness. I just need to get to him then maybe I can save him. I struggle out of my harness and rush to him. "Rory wake up!" I say and I see his eyes flutter but stay shut. "God damn it Rory," I feel myself close to breaking down. "Why did this happen?" My voice is shaking and I can't help it. I hear him cough and blood flies from his mouth.

"Pelican you still there?" I hear from the radio.

"Yes!" I say as I grab the radio. "We need a medic now!"

"We are on it only a few minutes out." I sigh.

"Rory only a few minutes come on hang it there!" I yell at him. The marines in the back have now awake. I see them look at each other and decide it best to wait up outside with a flare ready. Rory's eyes open and I look at him.

"Tori-" He coughs. "I'm not going to make it. Its fine. I have cheated death one to many times." He struggles the words out. I can't take it anymore, tears start to roll down my face.

"No, you can make it. You have to."

"Don't worry about-" I cut him off.

"Save you strength." He nods. His eyes are unfocused and glassed over. His breathing is very faint. I reach out and grab his hand. I hear a distant roar of a pelican, then I flare going off and shouting. "Its almost here Rory. Hey stay with me!" I yell and his eyes open just a little bit. I hear the pelican touch down and medics rush into the cockpit.

"Holy shit…" I hear a medic say. "Ma'am I have to ask you to leave so we can get him outta here."

"O-Ok." My voice breaks up and I stumble out of the pelican. I get on board the new pelican with the rest of the marines. A minute later I hear a blood chilling scream come from the other pelican. Then I see the medics with Rory on a stretcher. Once they are on board the pelican lifts up. He is so still that I start to think he has died. Silent tears are still running down my face. A medic checks his pulse and looks at his friend with a grim look. I don't trust me voice so I don't say anything I just stare at him and hope.

The pelican lands in no time and Rory is rushed to a doctor. I run after the medics with Rory.

Rory's POV

I feel myself being lifted off the pelican that picked us up. I also still feel numb. I guess it is a good thing I don't feel the pain. I drift in and out over the next few hours and finally my eyes snap open.

First thing I notice is that my gut is on fire. Then, I realize I am in a hospital. I look around and see white walls and a vase with flowers in it. I ring the nurse button.

"You're awake? Finally you had your friends worried." The nurse says as she enters the room. She tells me that she will go get them.

A few minutes pass and I see my squad shuffle into the room and wear hospital robes. Kasey has a cast on his leg, Tori has one on her left arm, and Jake has bandages on his chest. I smile at them.

"Well look at us, what a sorry sight. Four elite special forces, all banged up from head to toe." Jake jokes. I laugh and regret it as pain rips through my stomach.

"It took you long enough to wake up Rory, have a nice nap?" Kasey says.

"How long was I out for."

"Two weeks." I sigh.

"Alright so just what happened last mission?" I ask, "I mean did we win, What have the Covenant been up to, and where the hell are we?"

"Woah clam down. Yes we won, The Covenant are only a shell of what they were once, and we are in America." Kasey informs me. I sigh relived. I am in shock the war on the Covenant is pretty much over and we won! I smile and I look at Tori who has been awfully quite. She looks away and out the window.

"Uh Tori is there a problem?" I ask. I see Jake and Kasey look at each other.

"Bad idea," I hear Kasey whisper to Jake just loud enough for me to hear it. Jake nods, and I take a glance at Tori.

"Yeah there is a big problem!" She yells. Kasey and Jake mutter something about their wounds acting up and leave the room.

"Really?" I shout back. "Why don't you tell me then." She looks at me fire in her eyes.

"Just how dumb are you."

"Dumb enough to have lives through the Covenant, the Flood, a mongoose crash, and not one but two pelican crashes!" I shout.

"You idiot! You almost died, Rory." She doesn't yell this. "Died. Do you get that?"

"Yeah I do. But, I didn't."

"See and that's the problem." She again raises her voice. "You don't see the big picture. You don't stop to think. You just do things without any thought."

"What? What time was there. The flood near kill both of us." She breaths out heavily and looks away.

"There must have been another way. Did you stop to think about getting all of us killed? That oh I don't know traveling through slip space in a pelican was a bad idea?"

"Whatever." I say and look away. She doesn't respond and walks out of my room.

A week passes and I am well enough to get discharged from the hospital. Jake shows me to our new barracks. It is a small wooden cabin. I walk inside and Kasey laying down on the couch watching T.V.

"We have a T.V?" I ask in awe.

"Yup." Jake says.

"Hell yeah!" I say and run well more like limp to the nearest chair and I start to watch T.V. Something I haven't done in what feels like ever. Kasey nods his head at me and then goes back to the T.V.

Tori walks out of a room and walks to a couch acting like there was nothing wrong.

"So that's it then nothing wrong?" I ask her heated. Jake slaps his head and sighs. And Kasey turns up the volume. "Can I talk to you alone?" She agrees and we walk to her room.

"So what is your problem Rory?"

"What's my problem? You flip out at me in the hospital never telling me what the hell was going on and now you act like nothing even happened!" I shout.

"Fine you what to know what's wrong?" I nod. "You almost left me! You almost left me alone and died. I almost lost you!" She yells. I take a step back from her and I am shocked. "You nearly died you were so close everyone thought you died. I was so worried about you. Then you wake up acting like it was no big deal and joking about it. You … I-I almost lost one of the only people in the world I still care about."

"I … I didn't know" I mutter out.

"Of course you didn't because you are a dumb ass." She says softly.

"I am sorry."

"I don't know what I would do if you died. I sigh.

"You know one of my first drill sergeants said something that stuck with me. You are already dead, all of us are dead. So fight to live and have normal live but you must give it your all and even if you die, you were dead to begin with anyways." I pause for a moment. "So that's why I act the way I do, its just how I cope with all of it."

"Wow that's stupid." She laughs.

"Aw come on I think it is inspirational." She laughs hard and I roll my eyes.

"I'm sorry," She says between laughs.

Just then there is a loud knock on the door. Jake gets the door and I hear clearly even through the door that the man outside says.

"New orders." My heart drops. I leave the room with Tori and I see Jake closing the door. He has a letter in his hand. He slowly opens and looks inside.

"Well damn it." He sighs.

"What?" I ask.

"Two weeks from now we are heading out to a brute colony world." I rub my head taking in this new information.

"Well shit"

Two weeks pass in no time and we are moved on to a ship and we head out for god only knows what. We are in the ODST Launch Pad room and I am leaning against a table when an alarm goes off.

"Here we go again," I say and hop into my HEV. I hatch to my HEV closes and the countdown comes on. Then we are launched into the darkness. The ride down never ceases to amaze me. We enter the planet and the ride becomes really bumpy as usual. I hit the ground and jump out rifle at the ready. Three other HEV hit next to mine and others get out.

"Well just our luck to land in a huge ass jungle." Kasey says.

"If you didn't notice this planet as a shit ton of jungle." Jake says and we move up. The jungle makes it slow going and after a three hour march we are in position.

"Alright the plan is to go in and out no noise and we leave them a nice little gift." He points to a tactical nuke on his back. "Any question?" everyone is quite so, we climd the last little mound and see the brute compound. It is bigger than I thought. There is a five story building in the middle with a dozen or so two story building all around it. There could be shit ton of brutes down there. We silently move down the hill and in to the compound. We make it half way to the middle and the we are spotted. I open up on the brute that spotted us and he falls over dead but now we have to sprint to the middle building. We make to the middle and we get inside only to find the place crowded with brutes. There are at least a dozen brutes in the small room and I look at the others with me and get ready to fire.

"Fuck." I breath out and fire.


	14. Chapter 14

Our bullets rip into the room and the brutes left out screams. The brutes regain their composure and aim at us, I spike flies by my head. I drop to one knee and kill the brute that fired the spike. Jake pulls a grenade from his belt and hurls into the group. The already stunned brutes fall backwards deeper into the build as they see the grenade Jake threw. However, there are two that were not fast enough and the blast engulfs them. I lead the squad into the middle of the room and the others move up along my flank. We sweep through the room quietly stack up against the door that the brutes had ran into.

I hold my hand in the air and count down with my fingers to zero and Kasey throws a flash bang grenade into the room. The bang is heard and we rush into the room. The brutes are all clutching their heads and one by one they are cut down by our bullets. The room we enter has a grav lift in the middle and is other wise a dead end. I walk to the grav lift and I look up the lift it appears to go all the way up. Jake takes the nuke off his back and places it on the ground. He hit's a few buttons and the countdown starts. I hear roaring coming from the lobby.

"Shit looks like the brutes outside caught up." I mutter. I slide over to the side of the door and lean up against it. I peak my head around the corner. "Damn…"

"How many Rory?" Jake asks.

"Ten inside and way more outside." I hear a long sigh coming from Jake. He turns to the lift and looks up. "We don't have an evac until tomorrow." He shakes his head. "Alright I got a plan. Head up to the third floor and follow right behind me don't slow down for anything." He jumps into the lift and I follow right behind him. We stop at the third floor and are greeted with silence. Kasey and Tori land and Jake tells Kasey to fire a rocket at the wall. The rocket hit's the wall, the smoke clears and there is a hole in the wall big enough for us to fit through.

With no warning Jake jumps. I let out a shocked gasp. I look out the window and he is running across the roof top of one of the smaller buildings. I take a few steps back and sprit at the hole. I jump and I a moment later I feel pain as my knees buckle but I shake it off and run after Jake. We reach the end of the building and he leaps across onto another one. I follow and we repeat this again. We run to the end of yet another rooftop and he jumps. This time however there is just a fall not another building. I jump and get ready to roll forward to try and dull the pain. I hit the ground and roll, it doesn't help much but I know I need to keep running so I don't slow down. I hear two much thuds from behind me and the four of us rush into the jungle around the compound.

"Hurry! Only a minute left in the countdown!" Jake yells over the radio.

"What?" I yell and I run faster than I ever have before. My feet seem to be gliding against the ground as a speed up even further. We reach a clearing in which a warthog, but not a gunner warthog but a transport one so the entire team can fit, was left for us. Jake jumps into the drives seat. I slide over the hood and swing myself in the passenger's seat. As I hit the seat I hear the hog roar to life. Tori dives into the back and Kasey follows a second later. "GO, GO, GO!" I shout and the warthog throws dirt and rocks everywhere as we speed off into a dried out river bed. The ride last for maybe ten seconds before I deafen blast tears through the land. Even though it is night time the sky is full with enough like to make it appear to be day.

The shock wave catches us and the warthog starts to get caught in it, For a second it looks as if Jake has it under control but the hog leaves the ground and starts to roll again and again. The warthog keeps rolling for at least a fifty yards. As it finally skids to a stop I open my eyes. The warthog is upside down and I am suspended in air because of my seat belt.

I look around and see Jake isn't in the warthog anymore. I can't turn my head enough to see into the back so I release my seat belt and I slam into the ground. I groan and I struggle to my feet. Jake is ten feet from the warthog and getting to his feet, Kasey and Tori as well are ok and rising. I try and shake my head clear of the ringing from the nuke but it doesn't help. Instead of talking Jake uses hand signs and tells us to keep moving. I see Tori limping and offer to help. She wraps an arm around my neck and we limp down the river bed.

It feels like hours but it can have been more then one, but still we deicide that we will stop for the night. We set up camp and sit down around a small fire. I sit down on the ground and take my helmet off. I lean back and let out a happy sigh.

"You guys did good today." Jake says as he heads into a tent.

"Damn makes you forget we are at war …almost." Kasey says as he closes his eyes.

"Not really." Jake says as he watches outside the camp. "I'll take first watch, Kasey you next, Tori, then Rory." We all nod and I decide it would be best if I turn in early. I crawl into a tent and shut my eyes. It feels like as soon as I shut my eyes Tori is waking me up to go on watch.

"Rory." I groan and roll over. I yawn and crawl out of the tent.

"Anything exciting happen while I was passed out."

"Nope its quiet." I sigh in relief and sit next to the dieing fire. I rub the sleep from my eyes and yawn again. As best I can see, because it is almost completely dark around the camp, it is safe. I relax even though I know I shouldn't, One second later and a spike grenade comes flying at me. I roll out of the way and slam on my helmet.

"CONTACT! CONTACT!" I yell. I fire at where I think the brute threw it from. The rest of my squad scrambles out of the tents.

"Where?" Jake yells over my fire.

"I don't know!" I shout back.

"Cease fire!" I pull my finger off the trigger and reload. "Did you see something?"

"Yeah the spike-" I look around for where the grenade landed. But I can't see it anywhere. "I swear I saw a spike grenade," I mutter.

"Maybe you should get some sleep. I'll take over." I nod and I look around confused one more time.

"I swear I saw it." I say and get into the tent. Again I close my eyes but sleep wont come. I kept wondering what the hell I saw and why I thought it was a spike grenade.

The night slowly turns to day and I get up out of the tent. Jake calls me over to him before he wakes the others.

"You ok?" He asks concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I am better now. Just needed some sleep." I lie with a smile.

"Alright, You need to be on top of here game out here. Ya know?" I nod and he goes to wake up the others. I still feel bad about last night, I start to scan the tree line looking for any sign of brutes. Yet there isn't anything I sigh and say good morning oto Tori and Kasey.

"You see any more rouge spike grenades." Kasey laughs

"Oh yeah laugh it up," I shove him and he laughs again. I sigh and we head out. The evac point is still a few miles up the riverbed. I take point and the others fall in behind me. "I don't like walk in the open like this," I say remembering soldiers getting cut down from snipers. I look in the trees at all times, my head always turning. I hear the sound of a beam rifle firing, my head swings in the direction of the sound. But again I don't hear and impact and no one else even reacts to it. I let out a sigh and just keep walking.

We make it to the evac point and the pelican is due to arrive in a hour. Jake tells us to set up a perimeter fifty feet from the evac spot. So we are all in the woods in four different positions. I look around the woods the chance of us getting caught is very low. Hell we don't even know if we are being followed.

"CONTACT! TEN O'CLOCK." I hear Kasey yell. I hear him fire his rifle, then I see the drop ship landing in the riverbed.

"Damn,' I sigh and wait till the brutes hit the ground before firing upon them. The brutes are exposed and get cut down but our combined fire.

"Chieftain!" I hear Jake yell. I can barely see his black armor across the riverbed. But, sure enough I see a brute charging right through the jungle and Jake's bullets. Jake falls back into the riverbed to avid the Chieftain's hammer. Kasey , the closest one to Jake, runs to help him out. Kasey fires a rocket at the Chieftain. However, the Chieftain swings the hammer and the rocket explodes in front of him, doing the Chieftain no harm. Kasey drops the now spent rocket launcher and fires his assault rifle. The Chieftain ignores Jake and runs at Kasey, I get out of my hiding spot to help Kasey and Jake. Tori as well is rush towards them, I fire my rifle at the Chieftain but as usual bullets have little affect on Chieftains. Kasey turns around and starts to run from the Chieftain, it swings its hammer and Kasey is lifted up off his feet and he slams into the jungle. The Chieftain turns back to Jake. Its smile growing wider and wider, it lets out a terrible roar and charges at Jake. Jake reaches for something on his belt. Just as the Chieftain slams into him, he rips free a spike grenade. He primes it in a second be the charging brute hits him. In the moment of impact just before Jake is sent flying he stick the spike grenade onto the brute's face. I watch helplessly as Jake goes flying and the Chieftain's face is blown to pieces.

Kasey limps out of the jungle, he slides down and lays on the side of the riverbed.

"Ugh, shit that hurt." He groans. I rush over to Jake, he is laying prone and he is very still. I slide down next to him.

"Jake!" I say and shake him by the shoulders. He coughs and takes off his helmet. He is bleeding from the mouth and he is very pale.

"My lucky had to run at sometime." He laughs but ends up cough and some blood comes out. "Listen the pelican is coming in half an hour so make sure you get the others on it." I am about to argue but he cuts me off. "You and I both know that I am done for. I can't feel my legs."

"Damn it…." I whisper. Tori runs over and joins me.

"How is he?" She asks. I just shake my head as Jake fades away. I pull out his dog tags. I smile when I see Marc's, and Zac's dog tags on Jake's chain. I sit down next to Jake's body, I take a look at it and sigh. Jake was the only reason I lived through my mission, he was the one that requested me to go ODST. I sigh and close my eyes. I want to just go home and live this shitty war behind me. Time passes slowly as we sit next to Jake, but I can't help wondering why the brutes haven't attacked us yet. The sun is right above us when I hear the pelicans engines. The pelican land right in front of us and we get on. Kasey helps me carry Jake's body on board. The pelican lifts off and we are flying for maybe minute when the pelican jerks violently.

"Aww no not this shit again!" I yell and strap myself in. Sure enough the pelican starts to spin.

"Mayday, mayday we are going down I repeat we are going down!" Soon afterwards the pelican slams into the ground and I once again get knocked out cold.


	15. Chapter 15

I open my eyes and find myself strapped in to my sit with no wounds. I sigh and see that my two remaining teammates are as well uninjured; however the pilot is not as lucky. I unstrap myself and stretched. "This pelicans aren't building for shit." I walk over to my team and unstrap them as well. I lay them down on the floor of the pelican.

The back hatch is already open so I walk over to it. There is a scar on the earth where the pelican had crashed through. I step outside the pelican and find that we are still in the jungle; I sigh again and reach for my rifle. I check the mag for ammo, and I cock my rifle. I hear a branch snap to my left. I turn and look into the dense jungle. However, I can't see anything. I breathe out heavy and look back into the pelican. I try my radio but all I get is static. "Just my luck," I say monotone. Again I hear a snapping noise, I turn to where I thought I heard the noise but again I find nothing. "This is great I'm going crazy too."

I sit down on the ramp of the pelican completely broken. "God damn it what should I do?" I say aloud. "Jake, what should I do? Why did you have to die?"

"Rory." I look up and see Jake without his helmet.

"What the hell?" I mutter.

"This isn't the Rory I know, he never backs down no matter how bad the odds are. He always finds a way to survive; He never loses hope, and most of all he doesn't complain about his bad luck, he makes his own luck!"

Right in front of my eyes he disappears. "Good God I really am going insane. But, he is right." I stand up and look around once again. I run back into the pelican and the distress beacon is going off, but I have no idea how long I was knocked out for. I grab a flare gun and head back outside. I hear the very familiar noise of the Covenant drop ship. I move into the jungle and hide in a bush as the drop ship moves in closer. The drop ship unloads it cargo right next the downed pelican. And what comes out make my heart drop. Two hunters and five brutes hit the ground and look inside the pelican.

I hear a weird barking noise come from a brute. He looks right through the jungle at me. The hunters charge their cannons and the brutes all take aim. "Awww Fuck me!" I yell and sprint deeper into the jungle. The jungle behind me explodes into flames and shrapnel. I hear the spikes from the spikers getting stuck in the trees next to me. The brutes take off after me and I drop my bag to run faster. I jump over a branch slide under another and I see the jungle starting to thin out. I slide to a stop as I see a cliff right in front of me. I turn around and the brutes are lined up with their weapons pointed at me.

More weird barking noises and one brute drops his weapon. The now disarmed brute charges me. I fire my rifle and he runs through it. I roll out of the charge and fir from my knees but he turns to me. The brute rushes and again but my bullets do nothing I feel my lungs expel all my air as the brute slams into me. I tumble and roll head over heels repeatedly. I finally stop and I try to catch my breath but the brute lifts me into the air by my armor and slams me down. He lifts me to eye level. He fist connects with my helmet, instantly breaking my visor.

He drops me to the ground and I slam into the ground again. I hear laughing and the brutes are all at ease enjoying my death. The brute turns to walk away, "Hey asshole is that the best you have?" I yell as I get to my feet. I grab for my knife and hold it up to him. He growls and turns back to me. But it turns to laughter as he sees me. I run at him as fast as possible. I lower my shoulder and slam into. My entire arm explodes into pain. The brute and I are sent to the ground, with me on top. Not missing the chance I lift the knife into the air and slam it into his neck. I repeat this and let out a yell. Again and again I stab into the brute's neck. The other brutes stare at me stunned. "Who's next?" I yell at them. Another brute charges and I back up to the edge of the cliff. I roll away from the brute at the last second. He goes barreling off the edge screaming to his death.

I grab my rifle and the last three charge at once. I fire at them but their armor takes the damage. I duck under the first punch and I reach onto its belt. I prime a spike grenade kick me backwards. The brute yells and explodes. The next two brutes hit me like a train. I flip in the air and slam to the ground. I feel pain my pain than I have ever felt. I smile as the brutes look to the ground where I was hit from. To their surprise two unpinned grenades are waiting for them. In under a second the brutes disappear into a bright light. I get to my feet and once again pick up my rifle. I raid the brutes' bodies for grenades and anything that will help against the hunters. I limp back towards the pelican and I see the hunters dead on the ground, more like blown to bits really. I see Kasey standing up outside the pelican with a rocket launcher in his hands. I smile and limp out of the jungle.

"Hey!" I yell to him. Hey waves his hand and I reach the clearing the pelican made.

"You look like hell." He says. I look down and see my armor has been cut, dented, and well visor is broken.

"You don't know the half of it. Is your radio working because my got messed up in the crash." He nods.

"I already called for a pick up. They'll be here soon."

"Good because I need a vacation, somewhere with no crazy brutes." He laughs and I sit down on the pelican's ramp. Time passes slowly and after a half an hour the pelican lands. I grab Tori and Kasey grabs Jake's body. We load up and take off. "I really don't trust these things anymore." I whisper to Kasey. He agrees but there are no problems and we race back to the ship waiting in orbit. I get out of the pelican and take off my helmet. I limp to the med station and Kasey follows bring Tori. I get taken away from Kasey. They doctor runs x-rays and comes back.

"You are fine no broken bones, there is some bruising but when you fight brutes you are lucky to only get bruising." I laugh and agree with him. He gives me a clean bill of health and I limp back to Kasey. I give him thumbs up and I sit down next to him. "So any word on Tori?" He shakes head.

"Nope nothing yet."

"Ok. I think I'm going to rest my eyes." I say and close my eyes and before I know it I am asleep. I feel an elbow hit my side. Kasey had elbowed me. I blink and Tori is standing there. I stand up. "Good to see you. How was your beauty sleep?" She laughs and shoves me.

"Real funny." She says and we walk back to our in-ship barracks. I sigh as we walk in see Jake's equipment.

Anger rose from my chest. "I'm going to kill them all." I whisper. "God damn it!" I scream and punch the wall. I rub my head and crawl into bed. The next morning we are called to our new CO's office. We walk into his office and salute him.

"At ease soldiers." He replies. "We haven't met yet so I am Lt. James Shill." We shake his hand. "I know who you three are so no need for you to tell me. Hell, most people know who you three are."

"Thank you sir." I say.

"Well before you thank me, your team is understaffed with no leader. You are down two members. Now either this team is dissolved and the three of you join three different teams or you stay the way you are. But before you give your answer I feel I should let you know that you don't have explosive expert, no sniper, and once again no leader," the words hung heavy in the room. I looked to my team.

"Sir, I could not leave my team behind. If I did it would be like losing part of myself." I say. He nods.

"I understand, the three of you will stay a team, but Rory you are hear by appointed to the rank of Lance Corporal and you will lead this squad."

"Sir yes sir!"


	16. Chapter 16

I open my eyes and pain shots through my head. I cough and blood comes out, I close my eyes again. I look over to my teammates both have their hands bound together and are on their knees just like me. The brutes cheer as the chieftain walks over to Kasey. It raises it hammer like fist and slams it into Kasey's chest. He gets knocked backwards and doesn't get back to his knees; the brute walks to Tori and raises his hand.

"Hey!" I yell and get to my feet. It laughs at me and walks over. I see the fist coming and then blackness. AS I fad I wonder how it got like this it was a simple mission.

-TWO DAYS AGO-

"Alright guys we going back to the surface. It turns out the first complex we destroyed was not as important as intell had thought. We are going after a different compound this time, but this one has about hundred times more guards." I look over at Kasey and Tori their faces are grim but that won't stop them.

"No problem!" Kasey yells out and I start to laugh at him. He looks over to my helmet. "You think they would get you a new helmet." I pick up my helmet and look at the cracks in it.

"It doesn't bother me while I'm wearing." I say defensively. "Anyways get in your pods." I order. I sit down in mine and the door closes behind me. The countdown starts and before I know it we are dropping towards the planet. I close my eyes and breathe deeply getting ready for anything."

We hit orbit and the turbulence shakes my pod, but it works through and I hit the ground. The door blows open and I hop out. A spike shots pass my head and lands in the pod. Kasey and Tori hit right after me. Another spike hits my pod, and I sling my rifle out my back. I fire at the brute in the trees. Kasey gets out and fires with me. Tori exits her pod and falls to her knees right after. I wave my hand for Kasey to stop shooting. I walk over to her and I look her over, and I see the problem. A spike has lodges itself into her gut.

"God damn it." I mutter. She lets out a pained cry. "Hey, hey relax. You're going to be fine." I grab the spike and grip it tight. "This is going to hurt a bit." I pull the spike out and she screams. "Kasey, get the biofoam." He nods and hands it to me. I inject it and give her some morphine. I help her up and we leave the clear before my brutes come. After a hour Tori feels fine enough to walk on her on. But that is just the biofoam and morphine. As night falls I pull first watch.

The night drags by and nothing really happens. I wake Kasey. "You're watch bro."

"Alright," He says sleepily.

"Don't worry about it I think we lost them." He nods and I lay down and close my eyes. The day light comes fast and I am woken up by Kasey.

"Let's move it we need to get to the compound by nightfall." I nod and get up. I yawn and we set off marching. At midday I have to inject Tori with more biofoam and morphine. I sigh and we march on the heat wearing us down. We get to the object and I climb a tree to see the compound.

"I see it" I whisper into the radio. "Its huge." Awhile passes as I look over the complex. "Hey you guys down there?" I climb down and as soon I get on the ground a large fist hits me and knocks me out cold.

Soon after we get throw into cells the beatings start. Every half an hour a brute comes in and beats the hell out of each one of us. I look over to Tori and she is barely hanging in she needs more biofoam if she doesn't get it soon she won't make it.

The night passes and the beatings keep up through the night. I feel my breaking point coming and I close my eyes trying to escape the pain.

The next day we are brought to a stage outside and tied up. The chieftain yells to the brutes that have gathered together. They cheer and my helmet is ripped off. I close my eye and the brutes force us to our knees.

I open my eyes and pain shots through my head. I cough and blood comes out, I close my eyes again. I look over to my teammates both have their hands bound together and are on their knees just like me. The brutes cheer as the chieftain walks over to Kasey. It raises it hammer like fist and slams it into Kasey's chest. He gets knocked backwards and doesn't get back to his knees; the brute walks to Tori and raises his hand.

"Hey!" I yell and get to my feet. It laughs at me and walks over. I see the fist coming and then blackness. As I fad I wonder how it got like this it was a simple mission. I forcibly open my eyes. "That the best you got?" I can't let them hit Tori like that. In her condition that will be the end. I get up and stare the brute in the eyes. "Why don't you untie me so we can fight for real?" It laughs at me and doesn't listen. He hits my stomach and I fall back to my knees. "Fuck you!" I cough out. The brute smiles and walks over to Tori. It looks right at me smiling madly. "No! Don't do it!" I yell helplessly. The brute lifts Tori up by her neck. "Stop it!" I struggle back to my feet and I am pushed down by a different brute.

Tori tries to get a breath but she can't and the brute is slowly crushing the life out of her. "No God damn it!" The other brute knocks me all the way to the ground and places his foot on my back. I stare at Tori. Our eyes lock and she nods to me. "No!" I yell desperately. Anger at my worthless, anger at the brutes, and most of all anger at the fact I am going to lose another friend raise from my stomach. The brute on top of me slams down and pain replaces the anger. "Let her go!" I cough out.

The brute tosses her down and she lands and is very still. "You son of a bitch!" The brute kicks me and the darkness overwhelms me.


	17. Chapter 17

I am being shook violently. That is my first thought as my consciences returns. I open my eyes and look right in the face of a brute. It barks out a laugh and the smell from its breath is overwhelming. I struggle in the beast grasps but it is useless. The brute laughs again and I look over, I am still on the stage and Tori and Kasey are still lying motionless on the ground. The brute throws me to the chieftain. The chieftain lets me hit the ground before lifting me up. The chieftain grabs me by the back of my neck and presents me to the crowd, who give out a loud cheer. I drive my heel backwards twice; the first hit lands on the chieftain's knee the other in its groin. I'm not sure how brutes are out together but the two hits either surprise it or hurt it and the chieftain drops me. I push away from the front of the stage and grab my helmet. I turn and see the chieftain sprinting full speed at me. I swing my hand with my helmet and the helmet hits the chieftain squarely in the face. That blow actually hurt it and it stumbles backwards. I hear a brute coming up behind me and I spin around 180 degrees with my helmet leading the way. The brute's spiker gets knocked out of its hands and hits the wall. By this time the shocked brutes in the crowd start to climb on the stage but the chieftains lets out a bark and the stop in their tracks. I dive for the spiker and reach it a half second before the brute. I fire the spiker point blank into the brute and the brute doesn't last long. The brute falls down dead and I turn to the chieftain. I see Kasey move on the ground. I slide my helmet over my head and take aim at the chieftain. The chieftain laughs at me as I unload the last of the spiker's ammo into him. Kasey gets to his knees right behind the chieftain.

"Fine I surrender, do what you want to me." I say. And I slide the spiker over to the chieftain. However, I put enough into the toss that it slides behind the chieftain but, he doesn't know Kasey is right behind and awake. It laughs but the laughter is cut short as Kasey jams the bayonet into the chieftain's neck. Its eyes are wide with shock and fear. The crowd is silent for a minute but then everyone start to yell. "Grab Tori and let's go!" I shout over the noise. He nods and we take off brutes on our tails. "Is that nuke still in your bag?" I ask between pants.

"Yeah, I armed it right before we were captured just in case." He replies.

"Come in anyone this is ODST wolf team, we are deep behind enemy lines and need an evac ASAP." I shout into my radio. We run down the hallway and take a turn and I repeat myself a few more times. As we run we arrive at a dead end. "Well shit. I guess this is the end." I say. Kasey nods and leans against a wall. "Damn it we were so close." I yell and the wall explodes right after. "Holy shit!" I yell and look out the hole. I see two warthogs, a transport one and a gauss.

"Hey troopers I heard you could use a lift." A marine smiles. I sigh and Kasey and I lift Tori into the back of the transport and hop in. The two warthogs take off and I lay my head back in disbelieve. The marine driving the warthog yells back to us. "You need to get your radio fixed we tried to contact you to get your location instead we head to waste time going to command.

"Guess that happens when you use your helmet as a weapon." I laugh. "We need medical attention really soon so step on it." I say as I check Tori's pulse.

"We have a combat medic in our team she'll take care of her," he says as he slams the pedal to the floor.

he says as he slams the pedal to the floor.

Ten minutes pass and we arrive at the same clear as we started at. I can tell take by the 3 drop pods in the middle of it. I lie in the warthog and I feel as if every one of my bones as been pounded into dust.

"Contact!" I hear and then I hear the distinctive sound of the gauss cannon firing. The two marines in my warthog get out and take cover on it. The gauss cannon stops firing I hear a marine say he thinks it's clear.

"Conners, can you see anything?" one marine yells.

"Nah, I'm blind up here," The marine on the cannon yells back. "Mike, why do you get up in the tree with the sniper till the EVAC comes. The first marine nods and slings a sniper rifle over his shoulder. The marine with the sniper, Mike, tosses his assault rifle to me.

"Here you'll need it." He says over his shoulder as he climbs the tree. Ignoring the massive pain I step down out of the warthog. Just that action has taken my breath away. The combat medic that helped Tori walks over to me.

"Hey there I'm Jessica. It look like you need to just relax for now." She tells me. I grunt in pain as a response. "You marines are all the same." She says as I feel a sharp pain in my arm. I look down and Jessica had injected a needle into me.

"What was that!" I say shocked.

"Relax it was just morphine." I calm down.

"Still you should at least ask." But I already start to feel the pain go away.

"Oh, when that wears off you'll probably pass out. Because, a person in you condition should be in bed not a battlefield. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thanks ... I think" I reply and look at her with a confused look on my face , which thankfully is hidden behind my helmet.

"No problem," She says far to happily. I shake my head as she walks away. I check the mag in the assault rifle to make sure it still had ammo. Seeing the full clip I turn back to look into the forest, it is eerily quiet. I walk to the gauss warthog. "Hey Conners," I say to the marine on the gauss cannon. "Get ready something big is coming." As soon as the words leave my mouth. I hear a shout from Mike.

"We have to get the fuck outta here!" He yells as he jumps down from the tree. "There are Wraths on the way for us!" The air is filled with bright blue plasma and I swear. I hop into the driver's seat of the gauss warthog and someone else into the passenger's seat . "Go go go!" Mike yells from the driver's seat of the transport warthog. "I'll follow you!" I slam the pedal down and an explosion rips through the clearing. my warthog gets blasted forward and I drive into the dense jungle. After a minute I look into the rear view mirror and see that the other warthog didn't follow. "Where are the others." I ask.

"Did you see if they made it out of the clearing?" Jessica asks.

"I couldn't see behind us the plasma nearly melted our back tires." I say as we speed on.

"I don't think they made it out of the clearing." Conners says. My stomach drops as I think about what that implies.

"Damn it!" I yell and slam the steering wheeling with my hand. I cringe at the thought of the rest of my squad dying. "Where are the hell are we going?"

"I'm not sure." Conners tells me. "That was our second back up LZ. Out first LZ was over run so we fell back to the backup but then command told our platoon that we had ODST MIA behind enemy lines so we leave as the rest of the platoon was picked up." I sigh in frustration.

"So we are alone on a brute planet just the three of us?" I ask.

"Pretty much," they say at the same time.

"Just great, and I thought you guys were my rescuers."


	18. Chapter 18

As the day turned into night the uneasy feeling in my stomach grew and grew. The three of us sped through the dense jungle and the pain that was taking away from the meds is coming back. I wince and slow the warthog to a stop.

"Hey Rory what are you doing," Jessica says. I breathe out heavily and my eyelids drop down. "Conners, help me out here. He passed out."

-(Jessica's POV)-

I sigh as Conners and I drag Rory from the warthog. We travel into the jungle away from where we could be easily spotted. I spot a large tree with a trunk craved out.

"Conners, there look." He nods and we carry Rory into the tree. Conners places Rory down and removes his helmet and armor. I visible wince looking at his bruised and beaten body. I look through my medic bag and find that there is very little morphine left. I check over his body wondering how he had even survived this. Rory's face has a look like he ate something sour and his breathing is shallow and rapid.

"How is he?" Conners says as he looks over Rory.

"He'll be fine just needs some sleep."

"Good, I'm gonna hide the warthog." I nod and he leaves. I look down at Rory even through his massive injuries he has a charm that I can't quite ignore. I pick up his helmet and move my fingers over the cracks. This operation is the first major one I have been on. I just got assigned to Conners and his team. I wonder how much this boy, who looks to be the same age as me, has been through. I start to shake as fear takes me over. I've almost been killed three times on this day. How long could I press my luck? I look at Rory the scar on the back of his hand and on his stomach shows that he has pressed his luck over and over.

As the time passes I find myself taking glances at Rory. I hear a noise from outside the tree and quickly draw my only weapon, a pistol. A figure moves into the tree and I fire but miss it by an inch.

"Jesus Christ! Are you trying to kill me?" Conners shouts. I drop the gun to the ground.

"I'm sorry!" I say fast. "I just heard you moving and I wasn't sure if it was you or not."

"Whatever, don't do it again." He says as he unrolls his sleeping bag. His breathing quickly becomes regulated and heavy. I look down at the pistol and pick it up. I unroll my sleeping bag and slide Rory into it. I lean against the wall of the tree and close my eyes.

-(Rory's POV)-

I groan as I lift myself up out of someone's sleeping bag. I see Jessica looking at me.

"Hi," I mutter. She looks relieved.

"Hi," she laughs.

"How long was I out for?" I ask.

"Around two days." She looks around what appears to the inside of a tree.

"Where is Conners?"

"Full of questions aren't you? He is looking for the others." The weight of the situation slams into me. "Before you ask why we are still planet side. The radios are down." I sigh and lift myself to my feet. "You know in my professional opinion you should be in bed for at least a week."

I laugh. "We don't have a week." I reach for the assault rifle on the ground next to me. She sighs and stands up next to me. I get all my equipment back on and stretch. I hear a branch break and I turn to the entrance rifle leveled and ready to go. The brute didn't last long as my bullets torn through its insides. "We have to go, they know where we are."

"What about Conners?" She asks as I grab her arm and lead her out of the tree.

"He is a marine he'll be able to tell what happened the corpse is a pretty good give away." I say. "Now where is there warthog?" She leads to the warthog and I hop in the drives seat and she hops in beside me. I turn it on and drive forward. As I thought it doesn't take long to hear the familiar sound of a covenant drop ship. I stop the warthog, "We have to go out on foot." She doesn't argue and we jump out and jog into the deeper parts of the jungle. After half an hour the sounds of the drop ships fade and I let out a sigh of relieve. I hear my stomach rumble and I realize it's been days since I last ate. Sleep tugs at the corners of my eyes and the beatings left me weakened. I stumble against the trunk of a tree and lean against it for support.

"Hey, are you ok?" Worry flashes through her eyes. I wave her off and sit down.

"I'm fine." But as soon as I say that I realize how wrong I was. My squad was killed, I've been beaten to an inch of my life, my radio is busted, the only other marine with any combat is experience is MIA, I'm starving, and to top it all off we are completely one hundred percent lost.

"No I'm not fine. How could anyone that went through what I just did be fine? How can losing all your friends not change you?" I look down at the ground tears threaten to fall. "How does someone lose the people closest to them twice and not get messed up?"

Jessica sits beside me in silence and I am glad that my helmet is on so she doesn't see my tears. She warps an arm around my back and I finally let the tears fall.

"No one should have to go through what you have Rory, it's a miracle you still alive. And an even bigger one is that you are still sane."

I'm not sure how long we sat there like that but the sun hides itself behind the tree line and the world is shrouded in darkness. The darkness is surrounds us as we sit in silence. The jungle moved all around us, I didn't worry if a brute was about to jump at us or if there was a sniper hidden in the trees. At some point I fall asleep.

My eyes snap open and I feel a weight on my chest. I look down and see Jessica's head on my chest. I sigh, "Hey, Jessica?" I say. She wakes up and looks around very fast. See looks at me and a blush shoots across her face.

"Rory, sorry haha." She laughs nervously.

"It's fine." I whisper. She still jumps away from me and stands to her feet. "Listen about yesterday…. I'm fine trust me I just had a little emotional breakdown." She shakes her head.

"Don't worry about it." I stand up and look around. Nothing in any direction just trees and more trees, the overwhelmed feeling comes back. As I look around I hear a large noise in the sky and see a blast of a MAC hurling towards the ground. The round hit the ground and even though it appears to be a few kilometers away the ground shakes violently.

"Rory what the hell was that?" Jessica asks visible frightened

"This is your first mission on the ground isn't it? That was a MAC or a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. My old squad leader told me a lot about them. Whatever was over there is gone now."

"We should head over there." I say calmly.

What? Are you crazy?" She asks quite loudly.

"Maybe a bit but it is the smart idea. Whatever was over there was probably important. And maybe just maybe there was Covenant ships over there. So our ticket out could be right over there." I point to the smoke rising up from the jungle.

"God I wish that didn't make sense but it does." We agree and head out slowly. The relaxed manner I was in last night is completely gone and with every noise in the jungle I turn my head.

I step in a large clearly that is full of broken buildings and covenant vehicles. I carefully walk deeper in leaving the safety of the tree line behind me. As I look through the ruins I can tell that there isn't going to be much hope of a working covenant ship lying around.

An hour later Jessica and I had searched the camp and found no sign of a working ship we give up and sit in a partially standing building. I hear a noise and smile.

"You hear that?" I ask grinning.

"What is it?"She listens intently.

"Our ticket outta here. A Covenant drop ship."


	19. Chapter 19

The assault rifle I held in my hands felt heavy as I peered out of the building. I take a few steadying breathes.

"You stay down ok?" I ask Jessica. She nods and I run up the destroyed stairs. I run to the top of the five story building and I wait thirty seconds. Right on time Jessica throws a flare to alert the drop ship. It shifts the spot light and lowers closer to the ground. Just as I expect the doors on the side open and a grunt hops on the turret. The ship lowers slowly below me. I take a step on the edge of the building. I take a deep breath and jump down. The fall was quick and painful. I slide down and nearly fall to my death of the side of the drop ship. But, I grab onto something and get my grip. I stand up and carefully walk over to side of the ship right above the door.

"I don't think this is what they had in mind when they came up with the saying "ODST feet first into hell." I laugh and jump down into the ship. Almost instantly I regret doing that as I unload my assault rifle into brutes and grunts alike. A spike flies by my shoulder and I shoot the brute that fired it. The brutes are shocked and surprised which causes panic. The drop ship losses altitude at an alarming pace, I swear and discard my empty rifle. I switch to my side arm and fire three shots into a brutes skull. With only the pilot and one other brute alive I take aim but, the pilot swings the ship to the left. I lose my footing and my pistol as I grab on to support. The brute charges forward and closes the distant between us. He swings wildly at me and I fall on to my ass. By tripping I barely dodge the hammer like fist. I pull out the combat knife Jessica gave me. With the brutes arm still over my head I slam the knife up into its forearm. It howls in rage and pain. I sweep out with my legs and make the unbalanced brute fall down. The brute tumbles out of the open drop ship. I stand up and hold on tight as the pilot tries its best to lose me. The scared grunt pilot doesn't stand a chance as I snap its neck coldly. The ship hits the ground and I step out glad to be on the ground again. I police the covenant weapons that fell out of the drop ship and I get a spiker with plenty of ammo and a few plasma grenades.

"That was amazing!" Jessica yells out. "Do you know how to fly one of these?"

"Uh… I've seen it done once. And it didn't look too hard."

After a few minutes I get a hang of the controls.

"Well here's the deal. I still have a mission to complete. And I need to find my squad mates to get it done."

"Why did I see that coming?" Jessica sighs. I fly the drop ship towards the brute main base. A few minutes away from the base I start to hover around the jungle looking for the clearing where we got separated. Only after a few minutes of searching I find the burnt trees and the clearing. I land and get out. What I see almost makes me throw up. There is a flipped warthog and a burnt body on the ground. I run over to the body. I flip the body and I almost sigh in relieve, the body is dressed in normal marine outfit.

"God, that's Ben." Jessica gasps.

"Looks like the others got away." I say standing up. "Or were captured again." I sigh as hopelessness sets in. "I don't know what to do." I say and I walk back to the ship. I sit on the edge and close my eyes. Jessica sits next to me and remains quiet. I lean back and lay down. Anger pooling inside me I slam down on to the floor of the slam with my fist.

"Rory?" Jessica calls out. "Rory?"

"What is it?" I ask with a distant voice.

"Do whatever you think is right, forget the problems that will come from your choice. And I will follow you." Her words seeped into my brain.

"Ok. We are finishing the mission."

The day ends and the night falls again. Jessica and I are in the Covenant drop ship flying straight into the brute's stronghold.

"You do realize this is pretty much a suicide mission?" I ask. But without so much as a shaking breathe she nods. Her blonde hair sticking out from her helmet gets in her face and she shoves the hair out of her face.

"I'm with you, I believe in you." The brutes don't seem to notice that we aren't one of theirs. We land onto of the main building where I nearly died and where the nuke should still be armed and ready. I hop out of the ship Jessica right on my six o'clock. I raise the spiker and slip inside the building. A grunt apparently standing guard gets a spike through its skull and I keep going in deeper and deeper.

"Hey you fucking monkey is that the best you got?" I hear from down the hall. I start to run and I bust into a room.

Inside there is a brute over Conners. I fire instantly and the brute dies quickly.

"Oo'rah Rory."

"Like I could leave a marine behind Semper Fi ," I say and offer him a hand up. He grabs on and I lift him up. Together we move on deeper into the large building we tell Conners the plan on the way.

"I like this plan Rory, crazy, stupid, low survival odds, and best of all a nuke." I laugh and after searching the building we come to an armory. I peer in the door and see five brutes milling around. I hand Conners and Jessica a plasma grenade each and we all throw the grenades into the room. The brutes had little time to react and even with a few more seconds it wouldn't have matter much. I slip into the room and find Kasey's pack. I look inside and grab the detonator.

I give the others a nod and we rush back to where we came from. The alarm goes off as we near the rooftop. "Keep going!" I yell and we sprint to the exit. The ship is there waiting for us and we all hop in. I take off as fast as I can and we are flying at high speeds away. "That wasn't too bad." I mutter.

Conners flips with detonators lid off and slams down on the button. A brief moment passes and I wonder if the nuke hadn't been armed after all but the night sky lights up and the shockwave hits us.

"Well done guys." I breath out a sigh of relieve.


	20. Chapter 20

I sigh and land the drop ship that we had stolen.

"What are you doing Rory?" Jessica asks. Conners just opens the hatch and gets on the turret.

"My team, we never found their bodies or that marine with the warthog with them." She walks to the front of the drop ship and looks at me. "So, I think we just killed them in the blast." I say void of any emotion.

"Rory, you can't know for sure."

"Think about it if there were no bodies then they were captured. And if they were captured then they were in that base. And we just blew that base off the face of this shit hole." I look at my hands and feel completely numb. And even if they were out of the base that clearing was not out of the safe zone… We should get back to the ship huh?" She places her hand on my shoulder and nods. "Close her up Conners were getting out of here."

Conners close the hatch and we take off. I switch on the radio and try to hail the ship.

"Never Forget, can you read me? Never Forget?" I repeat myself once more and sigh.

"This is Never Forget who is this?" A voice on the radio response.

"This ODST's Lance Corporal Rory Donahue, We have commandeered an enemy drop ship and are on our way to you. I'm requesting permission to board with you." A few minutes pass and finally I hear the same voice.

"You were part of Wolf team. And your entire team went MIA. Are your squad mates with you?"

"No and you can list them as KIA. They weren't outside the safe blast zone of the nuke. But I have picked up a marine and a medic. Names are Mick Conners and Jessica Thesller."

'Understood and toy have been giving clearance to dock. Have a safe trip home." I switch off the radio and angle the drop ship up. I hear a small ding on the outside of the ship.

"What was that?" And then hundreds more the dings almost all at once.

"AA! Get us out of here!" Conners yells. I try to maneuver out of the hail of needles but I am unable to do so.

"Strap yourselves in this is going to get rough!" I shout. And I start to wonder why I am always the pilot I get shot down almost every time. The ship drops down and raises again I jerk the controls trying my hardest to keep the ship in one piece. Then all of a sudden the needles stop. We reach orbit and nothing else happens which in my opinion is really odd it's not like brutes to give up that easy.

let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding and felt a kick come from the engine.

"Shit. That didn't feel good." I say and I look around the cockpit. All the readings on the machines are falling. "Oh this is bad."

"Why atleast we are it space and we will just float till they get us right?" Conners says from the back. I shake my head.

"No we are still in orbit that means there is still some gravity." The ships goes completely dead and we lose attitude fast. The drop ship hurls back towards the planet and swear heavily. "At this height we will die if we hit the ground." I mutter to myself. "Anyone know anything about how to fix covenant tech?" Silence is my answer. I look around everywhere for something that could save us. Sudden the hatch flies open and Conners nearly falls out. "Maybe its a good thing we weren't in space looks like the AA really messed up the ship. I look out the hatch and the ground is rushing closer and closer. I see a large body of water near our trajectory. Maybe if we hit water we won't die its a long shot but its better than nothing. I voice my idea but we run into a problem of how to turn the ship.

"I have a bad idea." Jessica speaks up. We both look to her. "Explosives. " I take off my helmet and rub my eyes.

"We almost out of time it will have to work or we are dead." I place my helmet down and pull out a satchel out of my pack. I walk to the very edge of the hatch and careful aim. I toss the satchel out as hard as I could. It sticks onto the side of the ship.

I run back inside and look out the two marines. I nod and hit the detonator. The ship shakes violently and I fall and hit my head. Darkness overcomes me.

Pain is what I feel as I slow regain my senses. And water a lot of water. I rub my head I should have been wearing my helmet. I realize right then that we are no longer falling.

"Everyone ok?" I hear a grunt from Conners. A few seconds later I hear a muffled cry of pain. I sigh in relief we all made it. My helmet floats past me and I grab and put it on. The water level is rising quickly. "We have to move now!" Conners gets to his feet.

"Im good to go, just a few bumps." Jessica however doesn't get to her feet.

"Jessica are you ok?" I ask.

"No my leg I think its broken." She says with pain apparent in her voice. I walk to her and I can't see any visible damage which is a relief. I offer her a hand up and she takes it. She warps her arm around my back and we stumble to the partly closed hatch. I nod to Conners and he slams it all the way open. Water rushes in and soon the entire ship will be full. We have to wait for it to full up before we can move. The sound of water is deafening. I whisper to Jessica that everything is going to be fine. She nods. In no time we are completely underwater. I push off with my feet and out of the ship. Jessica warps both her arms around my chest to I can use both arms to swim up.

Pain engulfs me and I struggle upwards. My injuries are finally taking their toll on me. I feel my strength being sapped away, as I swim closer and closer to the surface. I wonder how I'm am possible still alive, everyone I have known are dead now. And maybe this is where my luck runs out.

I kick as hard as I can and flail my arms. Suddenly I break through the surface of the water, Jessica takes a deep breath and I swim to shore. I crawl onto the beach and collapse taking deep breaths I wince in pain. Conners jogs over to us, and knees down.

"Now what?" I just shake my head. "We need to move before they search for us."

I weakly nod and Conners helps me to my feet. He does the same with Jessica and the three of us limp off into the woods. Day quickly becomes night from the thick trees over our heads.

We stop after half an hour. I lean against a tree and slide down onto my butt. Conners places Jessica down and looks at me.

* * *

"I need to get some sleep." I say and part of me wishes we didn't survive the fall.

My eyes span up and it is pitch black out. I hear noise I turn on my helmets VISR mode. My heart leaps as I see green outlined human shaped figures. I slow lift myself up and take a deep breath.

" Marines?" I call out. I see the figures stop and look directly at me.

"No God damned way Rory?" says a voice I never thought I would hear again.

"Kasey!" I limp over to them and smile.

"How are you alive? We saw the nuke go off and figured well you know." Tori whispers.

" Long story short its a complete miracle that I'm still alive." I wince and lean against a tree. Jessica gets up and limps to me.

"Rory here take these they help with the pain."

"Thanks." I take my helmet off and take the pills. I quickly replace my helmet and for some reason laugh. My squad is still alive! "Alright in the morning we need to get some where with out some much tree coverage and radio for a pick up." Everyone agrees expect Conners who sis still sleeping.

Day comes quick and we get up. We move as fast as we can back the way we came. Kasey and Tori take point because they are the only ones with weapons. We reach the beach and Conners radios for a pick up and someone tells us to sit tight. I wish they would hurry and I lean against a tree for support.

Ten minutes later I hear a pelican engines. Another two and I see the bird itself. I lands and Kasey helps me and Jessica onto the pelican while Conners and Tori stands watch. Kasey hops on and shouts to the last two. Tori motions with her hand and Conners falls back to the pelican. Tori turns and walks to the pelican I see something in the jungle a flash of purple. I try to scream out something , anything but it was to late. A beam rifle shot pierces right through her chest.

"No! God damn it No!" I shout. Her body falls and Conners grabs her pulls her on board. The pelican lifts up and jets away. Conners places her on the ground and Jessica removes her armor.

Even I can tell its fatal and that she was gone before Conners caught her. Jessica looks at me and shakes her head. I stare blankly pass Jessica to Tori's body. I hear Kasey curse and punch the side of the pelican. The meds are wearing off and pain starts to fill me. I close my eyes and sleep takes me.

I wake up in the medical bay on the ship. I feel better until I remember Tori. I look around and see take I have company. Jessica is in a bed next to mine. Her leg isn't in a cast which is a good sign, I sigh deeply and wonder if I could have done something different to change what has happened.

"Damn it. Damn it." I say out loud. Jessica looks over at me and realizes that I am a wake.

"Rory how do you feel." I laugh, but it is a very dark and sarcastic laugh. It shocks even me.

"Physical fine mentally like shit."


	21. Chapter 21

Its been a week, since I saw Tori die right in front of my eyes. I was useless I couldn't have done anything. The very familiar weight of my sidearm rests in my hand. Slowly I raise my arm, pointing the pistol at my head. My hands are shaking but my face is uncaring and distant. My trigger finger feels heavy and I close my eyes. Tori's face flashes through my mind. I let on a heavy breathe and pull the trigger. A loud click is heard and I look down at my cot and see the magazine still lying where I placed it. I toss my sidearm down and sigh.

* * *

"Rory," I hear from outside the door. "Where are you? We were suppose to be training." Its Kasey. "Rory. Come on." A few minutes pass and I hear him walk away. I rub my eyes and lie down on my bed.

I'm standing in the HEV launch room waiting for Kasey. Two months have passes since that FUBAR mission, and now the two of us make up wolf team. I wonder if one of us will not becoming back after this mission. Kasey strolls in and leans up against his HEV.

"Yo," he says flatly. I nod in return and lift my helmet over my head. I slowly slide it down and turn to Kasey.

"You know the mission, we sneak into a fortress and assassinate one of the Brute's higher ups." I say in a monotone voice.

"Its a suicidal mission. And I'd have it no other way." I feel my mouth raise and a smile appears on my face of the first time in a long time.

"Oorah." We bump fists and enter out HEVs.

We streak through the night sky and land with a bang. I jump out of my HEV and lift out my silenced battle rifle. After a check scan I sigh in relief. "We weren't spotted, guess it did help jumping in this far away."

* * *

"Yeah so what if we have to basically run for a day to get the the stupid complex." Kasey complains. I lightly punch his shoulder and we start jogging silently in the night.

Time passes at a crawl as my leg muscle cramp out and yell at me to stop. But I keep on just the same. Not one word was said as we marched on through the night. As dawn broke I I lift my

hand and we stop. I pull out a bottle and take a drink of water. I toss it to Kasey and he follows suits. In stretch for a couple minutes and we take off again. The jungle thins out and we are left on an open field. I feel terror rise in my gut we are in the middle of nowhere with on cover. I press on just the same, but I can't shake the feeling of dread.

The day drags on and sweat is pouring down my face as we run. I stumble and Kasey grabs me up. The day slow fades into night and we finally spot the towering what looks like a temple. I raise my rifle and look through my scope.

"From what I can see it's clear." I whisper. He nods and we run across the last remaining bit of field.

We reach the vent opening just as the intel told us. Kasey pulls out a small torch and cuts open the vent. I take point as we move through the rather large vent system. I hear Brute and Jackal noise and my heart rate raise rapidly. The walk is quite short as we reach out target. He is alone, I turn to Kasey and nod. He nods back and I jump on the opening. It breaks and as planned I tumble out of the vent. Kasey follows right after me and we both fire at the same time. The brute shocked and not in battle armor. He is no match and quickly dies. I look around cautiously. "That was way to easy." He nods and I shot the brute one last time between the eyes to be safe. I hear a barking noise from outside, I look to Kasey and point to the vent. He nods and jumps up to the vent. He grabs it and I push him upwards. After he is safely into the vent he reaches down and I jump up and grab onto him. He pulls me up and we retreat through the vent. A loud panicked barking is heard as we slowly move through the vents.

Spikes fly through the vent system. I push Kasey to go faster, and we are suddenly falling down to the ground. I groan as I land. I shake off the pain and stand up. There are two heavily armored brutes staring at us. We react first and bullets fly towards them. They roar in pain and anger, but the charge toward us. I fire a burst and the three bullets hit right into the brute's eye. It howls and drops dead, Kasey fires and drops his brute in a similar fashion. I look to the vent and sigh as we fell pretty far.

"Vents no good anymore." I whisper. He nods and looks around. I dash through down the hall wall Kasey right on my feet. I slow as we reach a fork in the hallway. "God damn it."

"Which way?" I shrug my shoulders and look down each path. Right or left a rather simple choice now could mean life or death, such a mundane dilemma is now increased ten fold. I hear barking behind us closing in fast.

"Right!" I say as the barking sounds like its right behind us. Kasey sets up trip mines and we take off. A few seconds later the mines go off and the barking stops. We see a light at the end of the hall. We speed up and rush out into the light. My eyes take a second to adjust to the light and we then do I am face to face with two very large hunters. I throw a grenade and fire my rifle, a bright green light flashes and explodes on my right. Right where Kasey was standing. I lay down on the trigger and aim for the unarmored places on the hunter's body. It charges me and swings it's giant shield. I barely jump out of the way and I raise my rifle and fire. It lifts the shield slowly and walks a step before it collapses. I look around and see Kasey on the other hunter's back his knife dug deep into it's neck.

It struggles and I fire a burst into its gut. The hunter falls, relief washes over me. I motion Kasey to run to the tree line and we take off in a flat out sprint. Once in the tree lines, 50 feet away, we look back and see five elite brutes running out of the temple. They look around and sniff the air.

"Shit they will smell us we have to take them out." Kasey hisses. I nod and raise my hand. I count down from three and we open up from the cover of the trees. My first burst drills a brute in the head. The brute gets lifted up and crumples to the ground. Kasey and I focus on the leader, I hit the leader in the right knee and Kasey hits him in the left knee. It howls and drops to it's knee, two burst rip through the brutes throat. The brutes appear to panic, barking fast and shooting everywhere randomly. The brute on the far left pulls out a spike grenade and I take aim quickly. The bullets fly true and strike the primed grenade. Spikes fly everywhere and the only brute that lived through the grenade is being impaled through the chest. We both fire once more and put the brute out.

I run deeper into the woods and I don't look back. Day turns to dusk and dusk to night but still we run. The mission could not have gone better, I almost say it out loud but I don't want to jinx us. I signal the pelican, but after last mission I don't drop my guard. Minutes pass and yet I remain vigilante. I hear the roar of the pelican and the barks of brutes at the same time. I check my ammo and nod, I look down my scope. Three brutes come into view, and without a second thought I fire at the group. First two die quick and the last dies after it fired a few blind shots. The pelican lands we get on without a word.

I take off my helmet and look to Kasey.

"I wont stop till they are all dead." He nods. And a vow is made, a vow made that is bound together but countless deaths of fellow soldiers. A vow strengthened by the loss we share. A vow that neither of us could turn our backs on.


	22. Chapter 22

"So the plan is?" Kasey asks.

"We are dropping right into a war zone."

"That's what I thought you said. Shit."

"Load up." I don't wait for an answer and I get into my HEV. As my HEV hurls towards the planet I feel a smile forming. I can see the battle as we get closer to the ground. Marines and brutes are all mixed together, there are no lines just a giant battle field. The ground rushes up to meet me and the HEV lands with a slam. I hop out rifle in hand. A group of brutes bark and look towards me. Kasey's HEV hits right in the middle of them, killing them all.

He jumps out and we run to each other. The sound of fighting makes it hard to say much of anything. More brutes take notice of us and charge. I drop to one knee, leveling my rifle I don't even have to think about it. Bullets fly. Spikes fly back in their reply. Of the four brutes charging one goes down and the others close in to fast for us to stop. A brute brings the spiker down on me, but I barely bring up my battle rifle to block the attack. The blow knocks me off balance, leaving me on my back. I crawl back dodging the second swing. I rise my rifle, still on my back, and fire. I aim for the brute's knees. It howls in rage and pain. I sling my rifle across my back and pull out my knife.

The brute on its knees has drop his weapon. I quickly slash across the beast's neck finishing him off. I quickly notice Kasey in the air, held there by a brute. With one holding him the last brute smashes its fist into Kasey's gut. I reach for my rifle and reload quickly.

"Get off him you dirty monkey!" I hear a voice, I can't remember whose it is but I know I've heard it before. I see a marine jump onto the brute, who was holding Kasey. He stabs the brute again and again. Kasey falls to the ground and rises his rifle. I fire at the same time as Kasey and all six of our rounds sent the last brute to hell. The marine gets to his feet.

"Conners!" I call out.

"I don't know many ODST that gets himself into this much trouble all the time so I'm guessing that's you Rory." I laugh and nod.

"Where's your platoon?"

"...Gone." All humor leaves his voice.

"Damn. Well stick with us for now." I tell him. He nods. I take a look around, we are in a valley and there doesn't seem to be a clear reason why we are fighting for this area. It looks as though we are just wasting lives for nothing but dirt. But if my commanders tell me to fight and put my life on the line for it, I'm sure as hell going to listen. Besides it gives me a reason to kill more of these bastards, and that makes me happy.

Day light fades and the fighting doesn't slow. It seems as though most people on both sides are low or out of ammo as hand to hand fighting is becoming more common to see. I duck under a bayonet and slam the barrel of my rifle into the chest of a rather large brute. I pull the trigger three times. Blood splashes over me and the brute falls dead.

"Rory!" I turn and I see a brute with a hammer charging me. I fire at it and fall backwards. It slows and then stops as the three of us hit it with everything we have.

We dug out a fox hole so we could be a bit more defended and has work out well this far.

"I'm on my last mag." Kasey says with a sigh. I toss him one of my two mags I had left.

"I don't know how much longer we can last here." Conners says and I look around us. Death is everywhere and I wince to see that there are a lot of marines around us. I breath out heavy.

"Hold your positions. I repeat hold your positions. We are sounding the retreat you boys have done your jobs." I hear in my radio. "Pelicans are in bound sit tight and pop some green smoke if your alive." I do as the voice says and throw a green smoke grenade. Pelicans arrive moments later and I see a few go down but one lands near us. I jump up and tell Conners and Kasey to go. I cover them to the on the way to the pelican and as soon as they are in it I get up and follow them. Other marines pile in and we take off. As we land at the Never Forget I hear cheering.

I hop out and see marines celebrating. I grab hold of one and ask whats going on.

"We won!"

"What? It looked like we got our asses kicked down there." He points to a screen and it is showing the brute planet we have been on the pass couple weeks.

"Wait for it... wait." The screen lights up and the best I can count 13 mushroom clouds appear. "We nuked 'em back to the stone age. Good night you fucking apes." I walk back to Kasey.

"Well shit. We actually did it." he whispers.

"Nah its not over yet."

"How do you know that?" I look at him like he is stupid.

"Has anything in this war ever been that easy?"

"Good point."

I wake up immediately I notice a dull buzzing in my head. It quickly turns in to a sharp pain.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have drank last night. Hell I'm not even old enough." I hear a groan and notice that I'm in the ship's mess hall on a table. I look to the source of the groan. There's Kasey, in just his boxers, on the floor. I laugh at him and I wish I hadn't as my head explodes in pain. Kasey rubs his head, and looks around.

"Where are my pants?" He grumbles. I shake my head, and he sighs. I stumble off the table and notice there are marines all over the mess hall most still asleep.

"GOOD MORNING MARINES!" The loud speaker sends a shooting pain through my head. "GLAD TO SEE EVERYONE HAD A GOOD NIGHT!" Every marine shoots up and groans. "EVERYONE HAD BETTER BE READY FOR DRILLS AT 0800 ." I look at my watch and its 0730.

"Better find some clothes quick." I laugh at Kasey.

The day had been hell and I threw up at least three times. For all the drinking and partying we had done command had gotten back at us.

I sit down on my bed in our barracks. I look at the three empty beds and sigh heavily. Kasey had passed out as soon as we got back. He had to do all the drilling in his boxers. I hear the door open and I snap to my feet.

"Sup Rory." Conners walks in.

"Hey what are you doing here?"

"Promotion." He throws his duffel bag down an empty bed.

"Nice. Congrats. We'll get you some armor tomorrow."

"Sounds good." He sits down on his bed and I hear the door open again. A young woman walks in. "Lance Corporal Rory Donahue?" She salutes me. I salute back.

"And you are?"

"Oh right. I'm private Danielle Hart."

"And? Why are you here?"

"I was transferred to your team." I rub my head.

"I see. Well make yourself at home."

"Yes sir." She drops down her duffel bag. I hear the door open again and I sigh.

"And you are?" I ask before I even see the person.

"I'm Cody. And I'm the best damn marine on this boat."

"Oh great." I roll my eyes.

"What you don't believe me?" I shake my head.

"Just quiet down. I don't care." He shakes his head and throws down his stuff.

"Oh hey there chika." Cody says to Danielle.

"... Hi there." I sigh. I already have a feeling I won't like this Cody kid.

"Well I'm Rory for those of you who don't know. And that's Kasey asleep over there. How much battle field experience do you guys have. I know about you Conners so you fine."

"The fight yesterday was my first battle sir." Danielle answers first.

"I'm fresh out of ODST training," Cody says. Awesome.

"Get a good nights sleep tomorrow we will be doing team work training. So be ready for anything."


	23. Chapter 23

"Listen up!" I shout at the three new members of my squad. We are in a large field with two two story houses on either side, a tower that is taller than the houses, and sand bags and other various bunkers spread around. I motion to the five battle rifles against the house. "The battle rifles are load with a special round call tactical training rounds or TTRs. They fire like real bullets and if you are hit it will paralyze that part of your body. Any questions?"

"Yeah. What the hell are we doing with fake bullets?" Cody asks. Over the week it took our ship to get back to UNSC to get back to a colony Cody has been really driving me crazy. I draw my side arm and fire at Cody's foot. He yelps and falls to the ground.

"We are going to running training drills. A three on two battle to the last man. Kasey and I against you three. We start once you get over there." Conners picks Cody up and grabs a battle rifle, Danielle and Cody limping does the same. They jog to the other side. I rub my eyes before putting on my helmet.

"You know the drill?" I ask Kasey.

* * *

"Yup I have a sniper set up on the roof top." I laugh and walk inside the house after grabbing my rifle.

-Conners POV-

I reach our house first and look back the 100 yard distance isn't too long but it won't be easy to cross without being caught. Danielle walks in with Cody right behind her.

"This will be no problem three on two." Cody says and he leans against the wall.

"I've seen these two fight before they aren't to be taken lightly." I say this rookie will get himself killed if he doesn't realize he isn't the biggest bad ass in the the world.

"Oh I'm sure they are good ,but I'm better." I sigh and ready my rifle. I glance out one of the two front windows facing towards the other house. I barely can react as I hear a loud bang, a lot louder than a battle rifle and Cody pushed into the wall. He slides down knocked out cold. There is red paint right over his heart.

"Shit!" I fire a few blind rounds. Danielle looks toward the window and heads up stairs. I hear a three round burst from upstairs.

"I got one! He was on the roof. I think I only clipped him though."

"Good job, can you see anything else?"

"Nope. Woah! Grenade." I hear it go over and Danielle runs down the stairs. "That was close." Bullets rip through the window I was looking out and I take cover.

Minutes tick by and soon boredom enters my mind.

* * *

"Ok we have to move. We are sitting ducks in here." She nods and we move to the back door. I open it slowly and slowly go outside. I hear arifle fire and I know its to late. I feel a sharp pain in my head and then nothing.

-Rory's POV-

I hear bullets at the back of the house and I charge forward though the front door. Danielle is standing there rifle pointing right at me. She fires and my leg gives out and I drop to one knee. Again she fires again and my left arm goes numb. I drop my rifle and pull out my sidearm, she fires and the three rounds miss. I fire twice, one round gets her In the chest the next in the head. She drops and I fall on my ass.

"Kasey we're good." He walks over to me and laughs.

"She got you good."

"I walked right into it. She was there waiting for me. And she hit you in the leg too, it's not like you were so much better." He laughs and I hear Cody moving to get to his feet. I fire a round and it hits off his head. Kasey laughs hard and leans against a wall.

"It will be easier know that they are waking up at the same time," I explain myself.

"Sure whatever you say."

Ten minutes pass and I regain feeling in my limbs and I hear all three of them waking up. I stand up, shaking out my arm and leg. They all get their feet and there is a dazed look on all of there faces.

"Well you guys did good, expect superstar over there." Cody glares at me. Now, Kasey will be on the three person team and one of you will be with me I don't care who. Whoever gets picked meet me in the other house and then we will start." I jog back to the other house and lean against the wall of the empty house. I check my clip and place it back in the rifle. A minute later Danielle walks in.

"Conners said you guys worked together before and Cody wants to shoot you so they picked me." I laugh.

* * *

"Works for me. Now come on. I run out the front door and run right toward the tower. I keep my head down and sprint. We reach the ladder and I motion her to go up. She does and I cover her as she makes her way up the ladder. I look towards the other house and rush forward running, jumping, and diving from cover to cover. Bullets fly past me and I diving into a waist high pile of sand bags. I look to Danielle and it looks like she is lining up a shot. Bullets leave her rifle and I jump over the sand bags. I take cover on the outside of the house, my back against the wall. I glance in the wind and see nothing on the first floor. I see Danielle motioning at me. She raises her and and two of her fingers are extended, she puts them down and raises two again and points up. Two on the second floor gotcha. Where is the third I wonder but I walk in the front door any ways. I walk silently through the house and move up the stairs. There's Kasey and Cody just standing there, both looking out window I pull the trigger three times. Twice in Cody's back and once in Kasey's ass. The both fall to the ground but, Kasey turns around as fast as he can with a numb lower half, which isn't fast. I give him a small wave and fire again. This time the bullets hit Kasey in the chest. I here a foot step behind me and I swear. The sound of a pistol going off is all I hear and I drop to my knees and fall down.

I groan and rub the back of my head. Kasey is waking up also. I get to my feet and sway a little. "Damn Conners." I see Danielle out cold in the room with us and Conners there with a smile.

"Good job Conners." Kasey says and fist bumps him.

"Yeah nice one."

"And Rory you're an ass hole." I laugh as Kasey rubs his ass.

"Should have been paying attention." My laugh is cut short as a feel a small rumble and see black clouds back at the UNSC base. "Let's go!" I toss down my training rifle and sprint back to the transport warthog, I reach it first with the rest of my squad close behind. We speed back to the base, Kasey driving. I reach for my real battle rifle and stand up in the back getting ready to shoot. More smoke fills the forest around the base, and I hear the sound of shooting but oddly no plasma weapons.

The front gate has been blown open, which is where the smoke is coming from. We drive through the hole.

"Holy shit." Conners mutters. Marines are spread on the ground dead with some men in normal civilian clothing with weapons. "Rebels. Probably the United Rebel Front."

"Get out!" I yell. I see a man with a rocket launcher aimed right at us. Kasey slams on the breaks and I jump out of the warthog. Seconds later I hear the explosion. I get to my feet and shoot at the man with the rocket launcher. The bullets hit him in the head and he drops dead. I pause for a second.

"That was the first human I've ever killed." I whisper and with all of the noise of fighting no one else hears it. I fire at another rebel and he gets lifted up and tumbles backwards. And soon the entire base is fulled with rebels all aiming at us.

"Whats the plan Rory?" Danielle yells over the fighting. Bullets hit off the ground right next to me and I jump to the side.

"We have to get to the officer's quarters. Now let's move."

"There's to many of them out here!" Kasey yells.

"Fall back to the barracks." I shout and run backwards avoiding bullets just barely.

We make it to the barracks and there are more dead marines inside the barracks.

"What the hell happened here." Cody says as he looks around. The windowless room is covered in blood. The door opens behind us and a rebel runs in with a shotgun. He fires once and Kasey gets lifted up and slams against the wall. The four of us shoot and take down the rebel. I slide next to Kasey and he coughs.

"I'm good. My body armor took most of the impact." Kasey groans and gets to his feet. I sigh in relief and close the door.

"We are in a bad spot here so we will move as soon as night falls in half an hour."


	24. Chapter 24

Darkness falls, but the fire rages on. I hear the rebels cheering. Kasey nods to me.

"Ok let's move out. We don't have any idea how many out there or if there are any friendlies out there so watch your aim. Oh and make sure your radios are off just in case." I leave the room first and stick to the shadows. The rebels are to busy celebrating to notice us. I attach my silencer to my rifle and motion to the other to do so as well. The base is pretty large and has multiple buildings for us to take cover on. Slowly we advance carefully checking the area before making any movement. Then a loud whistling noise cuts through the night.

"Shit." I hear Cody say. "My radio was still-." Shouting erupts from the the rebels. Spotlights are turned on and we are caught in a very bad spot.

"We've been spotted get moving!" I yell and sprint forward. I fire at the closest rebel and he drops dead. I hear the sounds of rifles be fired all around us. No where is safe, I turn down an alley and see that it is a dead end. The rest of my squad falls in behind me. The rebels take aim outside the alley. I toss my rifle down and and throw my hands up. "Do it. Its the only way we might live."

The rest follow suit and we the rebels stare down the alley at us for a moment I thought that they were still going to fire. "Stand down." A strong smooth voice commands. The rebels listen without a question. The leader steps into view. He is a monster of a man he stands over a head taller than me and is covered in muscles. A deep laugh rumbles from him as he stands right in front of me.

"Take off your helmets." I slowly reach up and remove my helmet tossing it to the ground. He reaches down and picks it up. His fingers dance across the cracks in my visor. "You've seen your share of combat." He remarks. I grit my teeth. "Tell me, ODST, how many close to you have died. How many loved ones have been killed in this hellish war. How many people have died because you were a second slower or just not strong enough? Your family? No, not them but your eyes tell me that someone very closer to you died. Your best friend? Maybe but I don't think so. Hmm. Your lover perhaps?" my body flinches involuntary. "Ah yes. Such a deep pain you show in your eyes. Did she suffer? Did she call out to you has she died? Did you fail her in the time of need?" I close my eyes memories washing over me.

"Stop it." I whisper.

"Hmm? Did you say something ODST?"

"Stop it." I say my voice shakes in anger and sadness.

"Why should I do that when the UNSC took everything from me? I hope she suffered and cried out your name I hope-" He is cut off as I punch him in the jaw. He barely moves and he reachs out and grabs my neck with one hand, lifting me off the ground. I claw at his hand and kick my feet. The lack of oxygen makes me slowly stop moving. Before he kills me he drops me to the ground. "Death will not be that easy for you ODST." I raise to my knees and smirk

"It will be for you." I roll the primed grenade forward. Before he reacts it goes off. I get thrown back and raise to my feet. I reach for my sidearm and see that most the rebels were caught in the blast but I fire at the last few standing. I pick up my rifle and help Danielle to her feet. Next I grab my helmet and put it back over my head.

"Gutsy Rory." Conners mutters.

"More of them will come soon we need to get some back up." Without any further hardships we get to a radio relay.

"This is Lance Corporal Rory Donahue, we are in need of back up at these coordinates."

"Roger that Corporal back up is already on the way ETA any second now." Just then gun fire is heard and I tell Cody to check it out. A minute passes and Cody reenters the room.

"Pelicans and a lot of them!" I let out a sigh of relive.

"Nothing is easy with you is it Rory?" Danielle asks.

"You kinda get used to it." Kasey replies. "Which probably isn't a good thing."

"Oh Cody come here for a second and take your helmet off." He walks to me and takes the helmet off.

"Why? I dont think this the best time to-" I cock back and unload a punch that pains my knuckles. He falls to the ground probably unconscious.

"I said turn the radios off. Next time you put the rest of the team in danger like that I'll kill you."


	25. Chapter 25

"This mission is very risky and to be honest you all have a good chance of not coming back." A Captain informs us.

"That's fine with us." I tell him without looking at the rest of my squad.

"Excellent, now this is a rare delicate matter. Those rebels that attack two days ago, the URF, they are attacking all over mostly on the outer colonies. I'll be frank, we aren't in the best shape to fight them. The war took all we had, we barely have control of the UNSC. So that's why we are going to stage an under cover mission. The five of you will join with the rebels gain their trust and take out their leadership when the time comes." For a brief moment I wonder if I should have asked what the mission was before accepting it.

"Now it shouldn't be all that hard to get into the group you'll be sent to a outer colony that was hit hard during the war. And be very open about you times during the war and this the part you probably won't like you will have to be dishonorably discharge." The words sink in and resist the urge to sigh. "After the mission you will be reinstated if that is your wish." I nod and smile.

"This sounds easy. A lot easier then 90 percent of the missions in the Covenant war."

* * *

"Good that's what I like to hear son."

"Rory Donahue, you are found guilty of insubordination and treason. Due to prior efforts in the war you are spared from the gallows."

"Kasey Rogers, you are found guilty of insubordination and treason. Due to prior efforts in the war you are spared from the gallows."

"Mick Conners, you are found guilty of insubordination and treason. Due to prior efforts in the war you are spared from the gallows."

"Danielle Hart, you are found guilty of insubordination and treason. Due to the lesser extent of your crimes you are spared from the gallows."

"Cody Vance, you are found guilty of insubordination and treason. Due to the lesser extent of your crimes you are spared from the gallows."

* * *

"ODST Wolf Team is from this point on are traitors and will serve not less then five years in a military prison. The court is adjured."

The warthog is crammed even though it is a transport hog. The five of us are shoved into it with hand cuffs and shackles on. I rub my eyes and sigh. The last few days have been very trying. I look at the watch I am wearing and motion to the others to brace themselves. Moments later the warthog collides with something and we are sent spinning. I get lifted out of my seat and out of the now rolling warthog. I groan and watch as Danielle is also ejected, I crawl over to her and she is shaking her head.

"You ok?" She slowly nods. I reach into my sock and pull out the handcuff keys. I free us up and I slowly and painful walk to the crashed warthog. The other three are all alright and I look to the warthog that had hit us the driver waving at us to hurry up. I toss the key to Kasey, and whisper from the to hurry. As soon as the others are free and run to the other hog and take off.

"All according to plan." I smile.

"Your shuttle is leaving is waiting twenty minutes out, good luck." The driver calls back to us.

The ride is over in no time at all and we hurry on to the ship and I sit down in the co-pilot seat and Danielle sits in the pilot seat. She is the only one with any training with space travel. She runs through a check list and then just like that we are taking off. I want to rest my eyes and maybe just take a nap but my body won't let me. Within ten minutes we are leaving orbit and off to a shitty outer colony with high rebel activity.

"Whats our ETA, Danielle?"

"Just over ten hours in slip space travel."

* * *

"Sounds good we should probably all get some sleep well expect you Danielle, sorry." I laugh. She whacks my arm and laughs.

Five hours later sleep still avoids me and I look behind me to see that The other three had gone to their rooms.

"You know I can handle this myself." Danielle tells me without look at me.

"Well I figured you could use some company, and sleep wont becoming easy for me." I say as I try to get more comfortable in the seat.

"So what do you think is going to happen, I mean do you think we will be alright?"

"Well I've killed an elite in a sword fight, beat down a brute in hand to hand combat, and survived a lot of crashes of all types, but I'll be honest I have no idea."

"Well that's certainly encouraging." She laughs.

"Thing is the Covenant were so predictable, but we humans are as unpredictable as they come. And that worries me. Who knows we may never and be contacted by the rebels."

"Do you really belief that?" I shake my head no.

"But, I do belief if we just stick to the plan we will be ok. This is a pretty rough first mission. You made ODST only to get an undercover mission." I laugh.

"Yeah I guess it is. But I wanted to be part of ODST and I figure it can't have been very easy on anyone's first mission."

"That's true I remember mine, it was around two years ago. Kasey and I were just out of boot hell we technically didn't even finish boot, but we just barely marines and we had fought all day on a colony and we were ones of the few people to make it off the rock. Before we rested at all an officer asked if I want to join ODST, I of coursed said yes." I trail off your a second as the memory of what Wolf team used to be.

"So there I was I had been fighting all day tired and hurt, and then a Covenant ship caught up to our retreating ship. And I'm telling the true here but you probably won't believe me. We blasted a hole in the Covenant ship and then we dropped inside of it with the HEV."

"No way!" She laughs.

"I know it sounds crazy and it really was. Then we fought to the core of the ship set a nuke and took a Covenant dropship out."

"I don't believe you." She says with laughter in her voice.

"I swear, you can ask Kasey he was there for that."

"Damn, I guess you got a lot of stories like that."

* * *

"Uh, Yeah I guess I do." I stop and think for a second. "I can't believe I'm still alive. There was this one time after I crash landed a pelican I had metal bar impaling my stomach. And this other time-"

We spent the rest of the time talking to each other trading stories of the war and life before it. We land and I check around the space port. I lift my bag over my shoulder. I turn to the others.

"I suppose first things first we need to get a place to live. Then there are plenty of jobs due to everything needs repair. So lets start looking."

We land in the main city of the colony which is very similar to old cities, it is out of date technology wise. The city only has around ten thousand people living there and crime rate looks to be off the charts. It doesn't look like UNSC even cares about this place anymore. It kinda reminds of the American old west, no law and criminals all around. As we head down the street people are staring at us.

"Let's split up, Kasey come on we will head this way and you guys check down that street". I tell them pointing down a random street. "Meet back here in an hour." I wave to the others and start walking again. The city is full of tall buildings it seems that instead of spreading out they just kept building up for more space. Most buildings there are very plain add-ons making the building taller some buildings have multiple add-ons.

"This place is a shit hole." Kasey mutters. I nod my head the people on side walks all look like they have had very rough times. Almost everyone is wearing ragged clothing, we look out of place in even the shitty clothes the UNSC had given us.

* * *

"Has to be a room in one of these places. Lets starting asking around."

We sit down in the little living room. We found a three bed room apartment on the tenth floor of a building on the street Kasey and I were on. I sit down on the couch throwing my bag down at the end.

"Well this isn't so bad. Danielle gets her own room Conners and Cody can share. Sorry Conners. And Kasey will get the last bedroom I'll sleep on the couch." Everyone agrees, Conners is very reluctance but agrees finally.

"Tomorrow we start job hunting I suppose. The captain said the rebels probably will know we are here already so after this point on we never mention the mission and only mention the UNSC if it is something bad about it."

* * *

Everyone goes to bed after some last minute planning I lay on the couch and let out a sigh. This wasn't exactly what I thought I would be doing at this point in time. Well I never thought I would be a wanted criminal.

I walk into a self-storage main office. "How can I help you." The man behind the counter asks with a very bored look on his face.

"Uh yeah I saw that you had a security guard help wanted sign."

"Do you have any experience?" He sighs out.

"I was in the war. If that counts." He gets up, and he walks with a limp over to a door behind him. He waves for me to follow and I do so. He tosses a gray and black uniform at me with a badge on the front and security written on the back in white.

"You'll work nights eight to eight. You start tonight." I nod and thank him. I hurry back to apartment I want to brag that I had found a job first. But when I get back Danielle and Conners are already there.

"You guys found jobs already?" I ask.

"Yeah it was easy, I'm working with a construction crew." Conners says as he flips through a newspaper.

"I got a job as security guard at some self storage place. I get to work nights." Danielle says.

"Really?" I say laughing.

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Yes why?" I toss the uniform I was given and she looks it over. "Guess that means we are co workers huh?"

"Looks that way."

Half an hour later Kasey walks in with a black eye. "I got a job." I look over at him and laugh.

"Who did you piss off already?" Conners asks.

"Well you see some ass was in line behind me for the place I was applying to and he may have cut me and I might have called him something no entirely nice. Long story short I got a job at a hard ware store and not that place."

It isn't until far large when Cody walks in.

"I got a job at a food joint," he mutters. Something seems off with him but as I tighten the tie I have to wear with my uniform I realize I have to hurry to not be late.

"Good job Cody." I pat on the back as Danielle and I head off to work.

"To think this is what its come to back in the real world." I sigh.

"It will be ok I mean it can't be to long till the contact us right?" she reassures me. I shrug my shoulders and head down the dark road to my new job and as I walk I can't shake the feeling that we are being watched.

XxXxXxX

(AN: I realize that the spacers are messing up and I plan on fixing them but Its 6 in the morning and I haven't been to sleep yet so next chance I get I will do it. Thank you)


	26. Chapter 26

I stifle a yawn as the night drags by. I figured it would be boring but this is worse than I could imagine. Danielle is set up in the back of the area and I am in the front, so I don't even have someone to talk to. I rub the sleep from my eyes and lean back in my chair. My eyes drift shut and I let let sleep overcome me.

My eyes snap open a moment later I look around started wondering what woke me up. Then I hear a loud crashing noise. I jump up and grab the nightstick I was given. I run out of the little guard shack, towards the source of noise.

Three men surround Danielle, they have pipes and other blunt weapons. I run forward silently, I get to the first man and swing my nightstick at the back of his knee. He lets out a scream of pain and falls to his knees. I take a step by him, as I do I swing the nightstick backwards it hit him right in the neck. The force knocks him to the ground. The second man looks at me, shock showing in his eyes. He swings the metal pipe at him and I duck out of the way. I slam the nightstick into his chest in a stabbing motion. He staggers back, seeing the opening I bring down the weapon on his head. I look for the three man but Danielle is standing over him with her foot on his neck. She raises the stick up ready to take him out of the fight.

"Wait!" He coughs.

"Why should I?" She asks putting more force on his neck.

"I have an offer for you!" His eyes are now watering. She let the pressure up and he gasped in a breath.

"Whats the offer?" I ask calmly as walk towards him.

"Well we can't talk here. This was test and you passed. Tomorrow afternoon three o'clock town hall bring everyone." Danielle takes her foot off him and he gets up hakes the other two awake and runs off. I glance at Danielle.

"That was fast," I say quietly. She nods. I sigh and wave to her and head back to the shack.

XxXxXx

I don't like the idea of the five of us just walking into the rebels. I want to reach of the magnum I have in the back of my waist band. We walk up the steps to town hall. The building is gray and depressing. It is only three stories ,but I get the feeling there's more to meet the eyes. I lead our group into the hall. It looks normally enough and I let out the breathe I had been holding.

"Did he say a room number." Kasey asks I shake my head no and I look at the second floor balcony which is held up by pillars.

"Shit." I mutter and as I do men come around from the pillars on the first and second floor all with rifles trained on us. I throw my hands in the air, the others do the same. I hear footsteps coming down the stairs and my jaw nearly hits the floor.

"Phil? What the hell?" I call out

"You know him?" Conners whispers.

"High school friend." I whisper back.

"Well Rory I never thought we would meet up like this."

"I'm just glad your alive I never knew what happened to you guys is Tyler and Joe here as well?" I ask hopeful, I almost forget there is around ten people with guns aimed at me. Almost.

"You see, that's the reason I joined the rebels in the first place they where still in the city when the nuke went off. My heart drops. I drop my hands out of the air.

"Another damn good reason I want to hurt the UNSC." I growl. I see a smirk on Phil's face.

"I don't know if I can trust you though you were so pro UNSC in school." He walks up right next to me and looks me over.

"The UNSC... I gave them everything I had! And they took from me... my friends, my town, and my heart. What do they give me a dishonorable discharge. I want nothing more than to cause them some of the same pain they inflicted on me." Phil smirk turns into a smile. He hold out his hand and we shake and turns into a "man hug".

"And what of your teammates?"

"They are with me trust me and you can trust them." He nods. And he motions at the other rebels to lower weapons. They follow his lead.

"Your the boss man?"

"Well sorta its hard to explain. Now come with me." He walks to the elevator and we all step in. the taps the third floor button twice the first floor's once and the second floor's three times. We head down.

"Tricky." I laugh.

"Now the initiation." We step out of the elevator and follow Phil down a small hallway that has a lot of rooms on both sides. He opens one and there is a small torch and what looks like a brand.

"Oh this gonna hurt." I mutter. He hears me and lifts up his right sleeve. There is a brand mark, URF is written with sword crossing in an X through it. I take a deep breathe, and roll up my left sleeve. I sit in the chair next to the torch and tense up. Phil starts up the torch, grabs the band and starts heating.

"Someone hold him down he might jump a bit and well we wouldn't want that." Phil says as the brand starts to glow cherry. Conners grabs my arms from behind and pulls them against the chair. He stops heating it up, and without warning slams it onto my left bicep. Pain. That's the only thing running through my mind. I try and move try and break free to stop the overwhelming pain. I look at the brand on my skin, I hear the sound of meat getting cooked on the grill and the smell is awful. I see smoke coming off the wound and finally Phil pulls the brand away.

"Damn it! That hurt like a bitch."

"Don't touch it." I breath heavy, Conners had let me go at this point so I stand up. "Whose next?"

"Glad I went first." I laugh out then wince in pain. Danielle steps forward and sits down.

XxXxXxXx

"So now what?" I ask Phil. The five us all got branded and now we are just waiting around in a large room with two couches and a few chairs. I'm standing leaning against a wall. He pulls out a remote controller from his pocket. He clicks something a projector slides down from the ceiling and projects an image on the white wall. The video as a UNSC cruiser approaching a planet.

"That's a live feed, they know we are here."

"Good I can cause them some pain." I mutter.

"We are thinking they followed you here. And against my better judgment we are going to hide you from them. We wont be fighting unless we have to." I nod.

"You four stay here Rory and I need to talk."

"No way-" Kasey and Conners say at them same time. I wave them off and agree. We head out the hall way and to the door at the very end of the hallway. There are computers ,all showing camera feeds, all over the room. Every computer has a person in front of the screen watching intently. There is one man with dark gray long hair and a UNSC captain jacket with his back to us.

"Ah you have arrived." He slowly turns around. "Splendid. Phillip you may leave now." Phil nods and walks out of the door. "Now young Rory, some would call you a war hero of the UNSC how is it that we have the good fortune of recruiting you?"

"Well sir, the UNSC and I had a disagreement about how we should deal with the rebels. I said that we should talk it out and well you now the UNSC. So they gave my team a mission to put down some rebels causing problems. We went on the mission and I told my team not to fire upon the rebels unless fired upon. And that order lead to a squad of marines to be killed. And the rest is history."

"And you hate for the UNSC where does it come from it seems like a rather trivial reason to hate them."

"Friends, my home, my everything was taken from me. I want to spread my pain upon the UNSC, I want to destroy everything it stands for."

"Hmm. Today you will get the chance." He says as he turns to a screen. "Seems as the first of the dogs are unloading. They think they will rule us will and iron fist and we will lie down and die. Rory, go to the third floor there is a snipe rifle there, I want you to lead the attack." A moment passes and I feel a cold sweat start to cover me. I nod and leave the room quickly. I jog down the hallway and make it to the elevator. As I wait for the elevator I recall the meeting with the UNSC captain that gave us the mission.

XxXxXxXx

(Flash back)

"Sir what if were are in a position where to keep our cover well need to kill UNSC forces?" I ask my voice stumbles over itself.

"Then sadly that is what you must do. This operation is too important for that to be an issue." His voice is cold and unwavering. I grind my teeth together.

"Sir are you certain?"

"I told you once and it is final."

"I understand."

XxXxXxXx

(Present time)

I walk into the room with the sniper rifle in it. I slide an office desk in front of the window, and grab the sniper rifle. I lay down on the table and look down the sights. I see marines looking around nervously, they as if this is their first mission. There is around thirty men in all.

I take a deep breathe, the cross hairs are resting on a young marines forehead. My stomach is doing flips and every fiber of my being is telling me not to pull the trigger. I can't do it, I can't, I can't.

"Damn it." I whisper to myself, my finger tenses and I pull back on the trigger. The bullet flies true. The marine hits the ground, someone yells for a medic but it is too late.

"SNIPER!" A marine yells they start firing though no one comes close to my position. I pull it again, and again. Two more marines down one in the head, the other in the chest. Then from builds all over the street rebels fire out the windows. It is a killing field. Marines scramble trying to find cover but there is none,very shortly there is no more moving in the street just blood and corpses. I lean my head off the table and throw up.

"What I have done is unforgivable." I mutter to myself. I wonder if I should throw myself out this window and end it all. But the though passes quickly I was given a mission and I will compete it.

I hear foot steps behind me it is the man in the captain jacket.

"Good work son. If takes a strong man to do what you have done." I slide my way off the table.

"Thank you uh, I don't actually know your name sir."

"I am general Tobias Welch. One of the three generals of this organization. The others are newer because their predecessors where killed. Now for now go home lay low the UNSC will want answers for this and all they will get is more dead marines. There is a back door I suggest you and friends avoid the main road." I nod and leave. My squad is waiting in the looby and I hear warthogs outside.

"Let's move the UNSC is coming." They know and leaven out of the back door into an alley. It takes a lot longer than normal to get home I have a cold distant look on my face and don't respond to any question all I want to do is get to the apartment and sleep. After dodging a group of soldiers we reach the apartment building. As soon as we get to the room I walk through the living room into Kasey' room locking the door behind me.

XxXxXxXx

(Kasey's POV)

Rory locks the door behind and I sigh.

"He's in a good mood." Cody mutters.

"Who knows what he had to do out there." I says. "I have only seen him like this once before."

"When was that?" Danielle asks.

"Well I'm not sure if I should tell you guys he might not like it."

"It's when she died isn't it?" Conners asks. I nod my head.

"Who?" Cody and Danielle say at the same time.

"Our squad mate die right in front of him, jackal sniper." I say the memory still stings. "Worst part is it was after the Covenant war had ended we found through the Ark and the battles on Earth just for her to die on some unnamed brute planet."

"I should have let her go first." Conners mutters. I never realize how hard that must have been for Conners.

"It wasn't your fault. Don't let things like that take you over what happened happened. No what-ifs." He nods slowly.

I hear gun fire out the window. I glance out and rebels are being gunned down in the street.

"This mission is going to be hell."

XxXxXxXx

(Rory's POV)

The marines faces flash through my mind. My sleep is trouble and I don't sleep for long. I get up and check the time. It's only 8:30. I almost forgot about my job and I suppose that I should probably go but in the end I decide to blow it off. I walk out of the room and I hear music playing. I rub the back of my head, everyone is in the living room. I smell booze, and then I notice that everyone is alittle bit drunk looking.

"Rory!" Kasey yells. "Here brother this will help." He walks over with a bottle of hard liquor in his hand.

"Do I get a cup?" I ask with a small smile.

"Who needs a cup?" I take the bottle and take long drink. I grimace at the taste. "Good stuff huh?"

"We aren't in the military any more so rules don't apply to us!" Kasey yells and stumbles on to the couch and Cody." I take another long drink, grimacing again.

An hour later I am completely shit faced.

"So we were on the Ark of only a couple minutes and I get blasted by a wraith! Sending me out of the fight with a broken leg." Kasey says rather loudly I break out into laughter.

"You guys should have seen his face!" everyone bursts out laughing.

"Yeah at least I was up in about after that mission you were out for two weeks after." He replies hotly.

"Remember that time on the Covenant colony you almost fell to your death?" He nods. "Sometimes I think it'd be better if I hadn't caught you." I say without laughing.

"Oh wow that hurts." He says sarcasticly. I laugh and take another swig from the bottle.

"So what about you guys?"

"In boot camp I was caught in a trap and was stuck hanging upside down for ten minutes," Danielle says. I laugh.

"It wasn't funny for me." He says trying to keep a straight face but fails miserably.

"I bet it was for everyone else." I say between laughing. "Hey Kasey we should have drank between missions."

"Hell yeah we should have."

"Yeah well I need some sleep its been along day." Cody says and goes to his room.

"Joy kill!" Danielle and I yell. We look at each and high five. Conners whispers something to Kasey and I'm sure I hear my name get mentioned. But I ignore it as I take another swig. Suddenly, they jump up and tackle me. The chair, Conners, Kasey, and me all go flying backwards.

"Danielle help me!" I yell laughing. I push them off me and crawl backwards. Kasey is trying to get to his feet but failing. I get up and put him in a headlock. "Gotcha!"

"Ok ok ok stop. I can't breathe." I laugh and let him go.

"That's what you get."

XxXxXxXx

The rest of the night is a blur. My eyes stay close but I am awake my head is banging and I not exactly sure what happened. I try to sit up and feel something on me. I open my eyes and she Danielle's brown hair. My eyes widen. "Uh Danielle..."

"Ugh, what Rory?" She opens her eyes and sees that she is using my bare chest as a pillow. She screams and sits up grabbing the blankets to cover up.

"Did we do what I think we did?" No answer. "Oh shit..."


	27. Chapter 27

I rub the back of my head, my breathing is uneven and rapid. I hearing knocking on the door. "Danielle is everything ok in there?" Kasey asks from the other side of the door. Our eyes stay locked and she calls back.

"Yeah, everything is fine."

"Hey do you know where Rory is?"

"Nope I haven't seen him since last night. He probably went for a walk."

"Yeah probably. Well I'm heading off to work." He calls and walks away. I stand up and covering myself with a pillow. I reach down, grab my boxers and pull them on.

"I-I don't know what to say." I mutter out. She nods. "But I do know that we shouldn't let this happen again." I say and I move towards the door. She moves to the and soon she is right in front of me. "Cause you know chain of command and all." I whisper.

"Yeah we should just forget it ever happened." I take a step closer to her. We are only a few inches apart. Then all of a sudden our lips meet. We pull back after a few seconds.

"But you know technical we aren't in the UNCS anymore." I say with a smile. She smiles back and we kiss again.

XxXxXxXx

I look out in the stair marines are all over the place. Yesterday's fight is still burning in my mind. Young marines gun down like animals, and I lead the attack. I see a man getting pull down the road. He is in civilian clothes. He looks an awful lot like Cody. The force him to his knees gun to his head.

"Son of a bitch. Where's Cody?" I yell. Not waiting for an answer I grab my magnum, a baseball hat, a bandana and goggles. I put the hat on back ward, put the goggles for my eyes, and the bandana around the bottom half of my face. I rush out of the apartment and to the elevator. I click the button and notice it is just arriving at the bottom floor.

"Shit!" I yell out run to the stairs. I slam open the door and sprint down the stairs. I hear people above me, probably Conners and Danielle. I get to the fourth floor and Ijump down the entire flight of stairs. It hurt but ti was faster than running I do it again, and the twice more. My legs are on fire as pain shoots up and down them. I drop my shoulder into the door and it blasts open.

I look around the lobby its empty I cock the magnum and slowly move to the door. It is Cody and he is still alive for now. I turn and see Conners push through door, two grenades in his hands. I nod to him I hear the pins hit the floor. I kick open the front door of the building. Heads turn fast at the loud bang of the door hitting the outside wall. I duck back behind the door and Conners throws both grenades, both not near Cody. He falls back inside and I stick my head and arm out. I fire the magnum at the guy with his gun to Cody's head. One of my round pierces his chest. He falls to the ground and I fire the rest of the clip killing three more of them. The grenades go off and panic happens. Bullets start flying everywhere. I rush out of the building towards Cody as I reload.

A marine, in my way, stands up from the grenade blast he looks me in the eyes. I see fear and pain. I raise the magnum and fire, At his leg. He gets hit and drops to the ground. I jump over him and grab Cody. He gets up and runs with me. Conners opens the door for us and we run up the stairs. At this point my legs are almost rubber but I push forward.

The stairs seem endless and I nearly stop but, I get a push from Cody. We get to the tenth floor and Kasey opens the door for us. The three of us rush inside, Kasey shuts and locks the door behind us. "Holy shit." I stumble and sit down in a chair. I pant and take off the hat and other stuff.

"Cody what the hell was that?" Conners asks between gasp for air.

"I was going home from work and a marine said that today was my unlucky day and that someone had to pay for yesterday." He wipes sweat off his face.

"This is insane," Danielle mutters.

"We might be in over our heads," I say. "No more going to work. Welch told me to lay low and thing after this we will have too."

"Hey Rory? Thanks you saved me back there." Cody says swallowing some pride to do so.

"Hey we are a team that means we are family as far as I am concerned." He smiles a bit and goes to his room.

"I'll check on him." Conners says and leaves the living room. I look out the window and I see medics helping the wounded. I hear a door in the hallway open.

"Search every room if the refuse kill them!" I look at the pistol in my hand.

"Shit." I run to the bathroom, lift the up lid of the toilet tank and drop the magnum inside. I leave the bathroom and change my clothing.

"Conners, Cody change your clothes now!" I yell. A minute later a bang comes from the door.

"Open the door! Now!" I go to the door and open it. I get push to the side and held up against the wall by the first marine in. I throw my hands in the air. Six more marines move into the room .

"Everyone that lives here come out here now." A marine yells. Conners and Cody come out of their room with their hands up. "Up against that wall." He yells point to the one I am still pinned against. The marine pats me down moves on to Kasey. Then Danielle.

"Oh look at this one sarge." He pushes her against the wall hard and starts feeling her up.

"Hey asshole!" I shout and I punch him in the face. He falls and rubs his check. Pain shoots through the back of my head. A marine had rifle butted me. I fall to my knees and a kick racks my ribs. Then another and I get drop onto my stomach. I feel someone grab the back off my shirt and I am pull to my knees. I watch as a marine cocks his arm back and slams his fist into my face. I fall to the ground again and kick after kick slams into me. I loss count after fourteen. I fade out and I close my eyes.

XxXxXxXx

"Christ." I groan. I open my eyes and slowly sit up. I wince and prop myself up.

"Hey easy there." I hear from the door way.

"Hey Danielle are you ok?" She laughs.

"I'm fine but look at you." I look down at my chest it is black and blue all over.

"I've had worse." I wince as a look myself over. She shakes her head.

"You like trouble don't you." I smile and laugh, which I regret.

"Yeah something like that. What happened after I passed out?"

"They looked around found nothing and kicked you once more, then left." I cough and lay back. She walks over to the bed, leans down and kisses me. "Thanks.


	28. Chapter 28

I groan as I roll out of bed and rub my bruises on my chest. A sharp knock comes on the door to the apartment. I move slowly towards the door. I swing it open fast. No one is there but there is a note taped to the door.

It reads: Be at the HQ at 1330. Be ready.

I put the note down and sigh. Cody comes out of his room.

"Cody, wake everyone up we have to move in a couple hours." He nods.

XxXxXxXx

I file into a room with about fifty other rebels we are all jammed together. With no elbow room and packed tight together, the rooms temperature was raising rapidly. A voice booms out quieting all thee chatter. Welch.

"Afternoon men, I called you all hear for a reason. You have all been hand chosen by me. This mission is high risk, some would call it suicidal. However, I know you fine gentlemen won't let me down. And you will break from the chains the UNSC bind you with. Together you will cast the fascist pigs." He motions and the lights dim and a projector turns on. It is a bird's eye view of what looks to be a marine base.

"This is where the marines are operating out of, alone taking it down will just mean dead marines. We want to strike fear into there hearts. Here." He points to a large building near the middle of the base. "That is a pelican storage area. You need to take a hostage and get a pelican. Fly that pelican to the ship orbiting the planet. Then, you will either overpower the crew or set a bomb and blow up the ship."

Whispers break out. I get a sense that they are excited to strike at the UNSC like this

"When?" I shout about the noise.

"Now."

XxXxXxXx

They equipped us all with out of date body armor and assault rifles. The rifle feels good in my hands. Kasey is driving a truck with all of us in it.

"This plan will never work." I mutter.

"I think he knows that." Conners speaks up from the back.

"They want to prove a point to UNSC that nothing is safe and what a perfect way to do so." Danielle cuts in.

"And we just happen to get shafted with this dumb suicidal plan." I complain. "Well let's do this."

We are the fourth truck in the line. There's 9 trucks in total and fifty four rebels including us. The first trucks rams through the gate. I take a deep breathe and and enter compound. Bullets start flying, the first truck is already engulfed in flames. Then the second one explodes also.

"Get out!" I shout as bullets tear through the windshield. I roll out of the truck, getting to my feet I fire a the closest of the marines. More trucks come in behind us. All the rebels are pouring out of the trucks shooting at anything then can. However, very quickly I notice that the rebels are untrained, and just can't shoot for shit. Marines are taking rebels down easily. I take cover behind a jersey barrier. I peak out and fire at a marine. Bullets rip through him. I take cover again, every so often I fire at the marines. Already rebels' bodies are littering the base.

"Kasey we need to fall back now!"

"Alright! Get in the truck everyone fall back retreat!" Rebels all over the place take his order. I jump in the truck and fire out the window. Once everyone was in Kasey reverses out of the best at top speed. One truck follows us the are disable. I see a a bright light and a I get deafened by an explosion.

"They just suicide bombed them!"

"Shit!" As the light clears I see the front court yard of the base in covered in large pieces of trucks.

"Go just go!" I shout

XxXxXxXx

I let out a long sigh. Rubbing my eyes, I roll out of bed. For another night sleep avoids me. Already a week has passed since that mission. The marines I killed I can't take my mind of it. We got a secret message of the top command of the UNSC telling us to keep going with the mission and that sacrifices must be made. And that they would tell us when to strike at the rebels. Until then however, we are to maintain this facade. The hatred inside me grew. How can they throw marines away like trash?

I look to my bed side table and grab the magnum. Forget orders, I'm not part of the UNSC anyways at least not really. I throw on a leather jacket and walk out of the room. Its still early and everyone is still asleep. I go to the closet where we hid some military grade explosives, C-12 a very potent. A small 4x4x4 cube of it can level a five story building in seconds. I grab just charge that has already been shaped together and head out side. I stick to the shadows and avoid the marine patrols. That slows me down more than I care for and the sun is over head by the time I reach the rebels headquarters. I walk into the door and I am stop by the guards.

"Hey who are you?" One of the three shout.

"Oh me?" My hand reaches of the silent pistol in my waistband. "Doesn't really matter."

"Whats that!" He yells again.

"I said." I pull the gun put a bullet in between his eyes I turn and fire six more bullets three in each guards chest. The three of them drop and I move on to the elevator. I punch in the code and head to the hidden part of the base. A flicker of worry press to the front of my mind, I just killed three man and didn't even blink an eye. I shallow heavy is everyone in this building a rebel and I condemning innocent people to death? I push that aside. The elevator stops and opens my heart drops, there's one of best friends. Phil, goddamn it, I didn't think this through but I've gone to far already to stop now.

"Rory?" He asks confused. "What are you-" a bullet punches through his chest. I shallow hard and the look on the his face nearly makes me turn the gun on myself. "Why?" He asks as blood flows free from his mouth. I close my eyes, and raise the gun to his head.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Goodbye." I fire and I hear a thump. I can't calm my shaking hands, I see his body and I fall to my knees. I take a deep breathe. I get up, shakily to my feet. I reach into the bag and pull out the c-12. I wanted to plant it in the basement to reduce the damage to the buildings around us. I set the timer for 3 minutes and hid the bomb in a what appears to be a torture room. I race back to the elevator, I slam the lobby button. It goes goes up, relief is washing over me I'm almost out.

The door opens and I rush out only to find five men looking around.

"What the hell is going on here!" I bark out hoping to get a somewhat commander type voice.

"Who are you?" One guy asks his hand on his gun. I lift up my sleeve showing the brand. I glance at my watch two minutes left. "Your name, idiot, whats your name!" I don't have time for this. I whip out my silent pistol faster than he cant react. I kill him with two well place shots to the chest.

The others fumble for the weapons. I race towards the door only shooting at the two in front of me. The two blocking my path drop to the ground. The slam into the door pushing it open. Only a minute and a half left I drop my magnum to the ground and sprint. I race towards an alley way bullets wiz pass me I slide down behind a dumpster.

I'm not far enough away. I catch my breathe and look at my watch forty five seconds left. "Damn it damned if I do damned if I don't." I get up and run. A bullet tears through my jacket sleeve. Ten seconds.

I look back and the first I hear a loud bang. The rebels turn around, the headquarters, just blows to pieces. The entire building and about a football field length around it is now only a forty foot deep hole in the ground.

I am lifted of my feet and thrown backwards. I lose count on how many times I roll. Slowly and painfully I get up. Damn, I survey the area, the damage is far greater than I expected the massive hole in the ground stuns me. Only now did I realize that I didn't make sure the leader was there. I stumble away from the area, already marines are coming. I make it back to the apartment. Everyone is gathered in the living room.

"Rory! Where were you?" Kasey yells.

"I was out for a walk." I lie without missing a step.

"Did you hear that explosion?" Conners asks.

"I'm pretty sure everyone did." I laugh and sit down on the chair.

"Any idea where it came from?"

"No, I came back here right after I hear it we should be careful though who knows there might be more."

XxXxXxXx

I lay on my bed and sleep still avoids me, I hear a knock on my door.  
"Come in." Danielle opens the door. She takes a few steps into the room. I prop myself up on my elbows. "What's up?"

"Are you ok? You have been acting funny." I look away from her.

"No I'm not ok, I haven't been ok for a long time. But am I more screwed up than normal no."

"I guess that's good then." I nod and smile, it is fake but I can't muster a real one.

"What's going to happen to us?" I sigh heavily. And swing out of bed.

"I don't know," I mutter. "I've been through anything like this before. I mean it wasn't simply before but at least the rebels had a headquarters wasn't blown away. But now, no ones if the rebel leader is alive or whats going on." I pause and take a though collecting breathe. "All we can do is wait for either the UNSC or the URF to contact us. I guess that doesn't seem like a a good plan but I don't know."

"I'm scared." Never before has she sounded so small, so fragile. I wrap her up in a hug.

"Me too." I whisper. "But we have to tough, we have to be strong, we have to be marines."

"Yes sir." She says but I barely hear it. "It's just so confusing. Why did we get this mission?"

"I don't know, I wish we hadn't." This mission is hell. It feels like it is taking everything I have and still wants more from me. "But, hopefully the rebels were stop by that blast earlier today and we can go home."

The sound of rifle fire breaks our thoughts. I pull away from her and look out the window. Rebels are being killed left and right, without the element of surprise then don't last long.

I close my eyes. I pray that this mission wont be the end of us.

"Rory?"

"Hmm?"

"I believe in you, I believe you we see us through this mess." I smile.

"Hell yeah." I whisper. I won't fail again.


	29. Chapter 29

"Rory!" A voice called out to me.

"Whose there?" I yell out in the darkness. I look around all I can see is darkness. Panic raises in my stomach. The darkness is unnatural, I can't even see my hands in front of my face.

"Rory help me!" The voice calls out again. My breathe is rapid and uneven, I look around wildly. The voice is very familiar however, I can't place it, the voice is very loud and is piercing.

"Who are you!" I take a step forward slowly.

"Rory, help me." I see a brute chieftain cutting through the darkness. The voice clicks.

"Jake! Where are you!" I pull my pistol from my waistband and fire at the brute. Suddenly, I'm back in the forest clearing where Jake was killed.

"Rory help me out over here I have a chieftain charging me." Jake yells. He fires his rifle at the chieftain. I run towards him and take cover with him behind a fallen tree. "Finally," He laughs out. "Now get your game face on."

"Jake..." I whisper. What the hell is going on, my head is spinning. I fire at the chieftain but he charges through my pistol bullets. He jumps on the fallen tree and Jake and I are thrown backwards. We stumble to our feet and the chieftain swings his hammer. Time slows, I look to Jake he is about to get killed again. I don't think I just act, I push Jake out of the way. The hammer misses Jake and slams into my side. The forest clearing fades into darkness. I struggle to get up and surprisingly I am in no pain.

"Rory help please." A new voice calls out.

"What the hell is this." I scream. "JAKE!" I scream as loud as I can. "God damn it!" The darkness is replaced once again by a beach. "Tori." I mutter. She is leaning against a tree without her helmet on. I slowly walk over to her. "Tori."

"What is it Rory."

"I-I-I Tori how. I don't understand."

"What are you doing Rory" She laughs. "Stop being weird."

"I loved-" I am cut off as a beam rifle goes off. The beam goes through Tori's chest. I slide to grab her. "I loved you!" I cry out. I rest her upper body on my bent lap. "No! Please please please no. God damn it!"

"Rory. I-I" Her voice fades away.

"No." I jerk up. I look around, I am in my room. "Damn it." I groan and rub sleep out of my eyes. I swing my feet out of bed and get to my feet. I walk into the living and see Kasey there standing waiting for something.

"Rory, we have to talk."

"What's up?"

"We have to end this." He says with a stone cold expression.

"What are you talking about?" I have a good feeling where this is going.

"We can't keep this up! We can't kill anymore marines!" He yells.

"I don't want to do this anymore than you do but we have a mission Kasey."

"We have crossed a line but, we still can go back if we keep this we will never be able to go back." I feel some truth in what is saying but a mission is mission.

"We have to stay the course."

"Stay the course? Stay the course! I can't believe you right now." Kasey shouts and leaves the apartment. I follow after him.

"Hey, its not safe out there!" I yell after him. I walk back into the living room the others are all looking me."What?" I yell at them. They all look away. Anger is rushing through me and I punch a hole in the dry wall.

XxXxXxXx(Kasey's POV)XxXxXxXx

God damn him. He is being a fool we aren't going to be able to go back to the UNSC. I didn't sign up for this. I leave the apartment building, and I look around I want to leave this shit hole and go back to the UNSC. The streets are just about empty with all the rebel activity. I walk down the sideway and close my eyes.

"Hey you!" A strong voice calls out behind me. I turn slowly. A group of marines are behind me.

"Hello sir." I say politely.

"Where are you going."

"My room mate and I got into a fight. So I am going for a walk." Its not really a lie. The marines surround me.

"Well. I don't really believe you."

"Ok fine you want the truth," I clear my throat. "I am Kasey Rogers I am an ODST undercover as a rebel and you fools are going to blow my cover!" The marines drew their weapons. I throw my hands in the air.

"You are coming with us."

XxXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

Night is setting in and Kasey is still not back. I sigh deeply. I hear a knock on my door.

"Come on in." I call out. Danielle opens the door and walks in.

"What's going on Rory?"

"Kasey is just working through somethings." I say and lay back on my bed.

"Its awfully dark in here you should turn on some lights." She says as she sits down next to me.

"I like the dark."

"Are you ok?" She lays back next to me.

"No, we are falling apart we have nothing to go on and this mission is destroying me." I sigh heavily.

"You are right. This is going to get worse before it gets any better. But we have to keep strong." I stay silent.

"I'm worried about Kasey. He is like my brother. I have known him since I became a marine. I'm going to look for him." I say but Danielle pushes me down.

"I haven't known Kasey that long but he seems like a person that needs to work things out of his own." I nod.

"You're right. Besides, I'm pretty comfortable right here." I whisper and close my eyes.

"Oh I bet you are." She laughs and leans in kisses me.

XxXxXxXx(Kasey's POV)XxXxXxXx

The marines that arrested me lead me back to their base where my story was confirmed but Captain Martin.

"Kasey," Captain Martin started. "Its my understanding that you no longer what to be undercover. We actually believe that your team went rouge."

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

"We lost radio contact with your team two weeks ago."

"That makes no sense we never received word from you!"

"I tried many times to contact Rory."

"Rory- No he wouldn't lie to us." The thoughts are like a tornado raging through my head. "He wouldn't betray the UNSC."

"He seems to have no reason not to. He has lost a lot because of it."

"You can't be for real." I say in disbelief. "Rory has done so much for the UNSC. Why would he betray us?"

"I don't know." He says slowly. "But, he has. We need you to get him back. You will be reporting to the ship in orbit and from there you will get new orders."

XxXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

A loud knock at the door wakes me from my sleep. I get up instantly and reach from my pistol. I walk to the front door, Conners is already there. I nod to him, he swings the door open and we both aim our guns towards the door.

"Welch? What the hell happened?"

"We were betrayed, I don't know who or how. But, our forces are scattered and we are in a lot of trouble. We are leaving this planet tonight. You five are last troops I know of. Let's go." My mind is having trouble keeping up.

"Tonight?"

"Yes. Pack and let's go its not safe here." He says and closes the door as he walks in. I nod.

"You all heard him lets go," I say and walk into my room. I grab my duffel bag, I never unpacked, and walk out. Everyone else is ready in a couple minutes.

"There were five of you." He says noticing that Kasey is missing. I glance to the rest of them.

"He was picked up by marines and killed on the street," I lie without missing a beat.

"Sorry to hear you have my condolences." I nod. "Lets go then." We start going down the stairs.

"You hear that?" Cody asks. Everyone stops and listens carefully. Yelling marines barking orders. I pull my pistol out and take point. Slowly we make our way down the stairs, we are half way down when five loud crashes erupt from the top of the building. There is only one thing that makes that noise, HEVs.

"ODST on the roof." I mutter. They nod and we go down faster. "Whats the exit plan Welch?"

"I have a warthog out back. And a ship waiting at the space port." He says. "Three more floors." I see four marines coming upfoll the stairs. I fire at them. The first two drop before they can even react. The other two fire a short burst of bullets but get cut down. We get to the ground level, there are more marines in the lobby. There are around ten waiting in the lobby, they must of heard the gun fire because they all look on edge.

XxXxXxXx(Kasey's POV)XxXxXxXx

I land on the roof and quickly lead the ODST into the apartment building.

"We headed to the tenth floor, be ready they are good." I whisper. We rush down the steps two at a time. In no time we reach my old apartment. I kick in the the door and run in. "Its empty? That makes no sense. Look around." I say.

I walk into Rory's room his bag is gone. "They're gone?" I don't understand. Just they gun fire rips through the night, I run out of the apartment. "MOVE MOVE MOVE." I shout. I run into the stair and jump down three steps at a time. "We can't lose them!"

It takes a couple minutes to get to the lobby. I kick open the stairwell door and I see the front door closing. I rush forward and take chase, barely noticing the group of dead marines. I get outside and see someone run to the back of the building. I look around the other ODST didn't follow me out they are probably checking the marines.

"RORY!" I shout. I rise my gun up and follow the person.

XxXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

I hear my name. That was Kasey. "Go on I'll follow you." I say and turn around the others glance at each other and run. I slowly walk back and see a person in all ODST armor. He reachs up and takes of his helmet, he throws it to the ground.

"Kasey."

"Rory, how could you do this." He asks pain apparent in his eyes.

"Its our job to do this. So others can live in peace. We sacrifice our happiness and our morals so that others can be safe."

"You betrayed us, you lied to us!" He yells.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't even, Captain Martin has tried to contact you but you ignored him. You turned your back on us! On the entire UNSC!"

"I never got any message." I say honestly. I see rage building in his eyes.

"Lair!" He yells and rush forward. He tackles me to the ground. I get my foot between him and myself and kick up. He gets launched and lands on his back. I get up fast and jump on him, I pull my fist back and I slam it down on his face. He blocks my fist at the last second and throws his elbow into my face. The blow knocks me off him and I slam to the ground on m back.

I hear boot steps coming I rush to my feet. Kasey slowly gets up. I run past him, and kick him in the head as he is struggle to get up. He slams against the ground knocked out. I run to the warthog, jumping into the back. "PUNCH IT!" I yell. Conners slams the gas, and we take off.

We easily get away from the remaining ODST, and I breath deeply. What did Kasey mean, What the hell is going on. This is bad, the UNSC thinks we are rouge, this couldn't get any worse. The space port isn't a long drive and we get there quickly. The sun is starting to rise as we get out of the warthog a small frigate is waiting for us. We rush onto it and Conners and Cody run to the cockpit. I look around outside it doesn't look like we were followed.

Danielle walks up behind me. "That was Kasey's voice back there what the hell happened."

"I'm not sure, I have no idea to be honest. But I will figure it out." I walk into the cockpit and Conners nods to me.

"Welch gave me a location we should be there in six hours." I nod.

"Where did Welch go?" I ask looking around.

"Captain's quarters."

"When ever we have time to talk I'll explain all of this so just wait and trust me." I walk to the crew quarters and take off my boots.

"God damnit, damnit. I never betrayed the UNSC, this can't be happening. I reach into my duffel bag and pull out the radio Captain Martin gave me. It looks fine I turn it on.

"Hello, This is Lance Corporal Rory Donahue, does anyone read me. Anyone? Please!"


	30. Chapter 30

My dreams haunt me once again, always a second to late to save her. Always leaving Jake behind, needless to say I get hardly any sleep. I roll on to my back and stare up at the dark ceiling. I don't even dare to close my eyes.. I hate the quiet night, it gives me to much time to think about things that are better left forgotten. I look at my watch, we still have three hours until we reach wherever Welch is sending us. I yawn and swing my feet out of bed. I quickly get dress, I walk to the cockpit and sot down in the co pilots seat.

"Hey Conners," I mumble. He glances over to me.

"Can't get any sleep?" He asks. I shake my head. "I know that look better than most."

"Can we not talk about it, I'll be fine."

"Ok."

"Any idea of where we are headed?"

"Uh, I'm not really the best with maps and shit," He laughs. "More of the boots on the ground type of guy."

"I hadn't noticed," I say sarcastically.

"Yah laugh it up. But, the best I can tell we headed out to a very remote area, near the border of mapped out space."

"What the hell could be way out here, I don't like this at all."

"Join the club, I have half a mind to turn this bird around and go back to Earth." He says very seriously. "We are in over our heads aren't we?"

"I can't remember the last time we weren't. That being said I'd rather be taking on brutes than this shit." I laugh humorlessly.

"I can agree with that."

XxXxXxXx(Kasey's POV)XxXxXxXx

"How did you let them get away?" Martin yells.

"It wasn't my fault, Rory... he is good." I mutter.

"Do you know how this looks! You were in charge that last mission and what happens? We get a handful of dead marines and your friends got away." He pauses to take a breath. "Lucky for you we were able to track them," He says with a smirk.

"You did!" I say jumping to my feet. "Where are they headed?"

"To the edge of known space."

"Makes sense in weird way. Are we following them?"

"Yes, They won't get away so easily. And next time capture them dead or alive." He gets up from the desk and walks out of the ODST staging area. His words echo through my head.

"Kill Rory?" I ask the now empty room. Could I even do that? "I guess we will wait and see," I shutter at the thought.

XxXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

Conners maneuvers the ship through a debris field. As we pass the last of the debris I see our destination. A very small planet, it looks uninhabitable.

"Conners bring us down." Welch orders.

"Alright." We descend towards the the planet.

"I guess you four want some answers." Welch starts.

"You could say that." I reply coldly.

"Alright we are out here meeting with the other two leaders of the URF. This almost never happens. The last time the three of us were together was years ago. You can understand why we have to be careful if some happens down here its would be the end of the rebellion."

"You can't be serious." Cody says in disbelief.

"I assure you I am very serious, the other two leaders and their personal guards and top advisors. I had originally not intended on bring you four but when the HQ was destroyed, and Phillip died, I have no other choice but to trust you."

"Damn this is bigger than I imagined." Conners mutters. I shake my head. This is to easy, everyone of our targets in the same spot, and we are in the perfect position to take them all out at once. I don't believe it.

"Ok when is this meeting?" I ask calmly despite the storm of uncertainty rushing through me.

"They are waiting for us to arrive. We unfortunately are tardy. Conners, here is the location of the meeting point it is in a small town. This is one hundred percent out of the UNSC so we won't have to worry about the towns people." The rest of the trip goes by in silence. Conners lands the ship outside of the town. Welch leads us to the armory, and I tells us to gear up for a battle.

"Why are we getting ready for a small war?" Danielle ask.

"Just because they are my fellow URF I don't trust them." I replies.

We take a warthog and Cody drives us in to town. The town is tiny, maybe ten building in all, none of them over three stories. No body is outside despite it being midday, the town is unnaturally quiet. A feeling of uneasy settles into my stomach. Welch directs us to the center of the town. When we arrive my heart sinks. The two leaders are there with five guards each, everyone of them as well armed as us. This will be a painful firefight

"Ah finally Tobias finally arrives." A man with long blond hair says in a very high pitched voice. Its hard to believe that he could be a feared leader of the URF. I suppose I shouldn't underestimate him. He wouldn't be here if he wasn't deadly.

"Tobias, my dear friend how good it is to see you." The other leader says. He is a very large man, he stands at least two heads above me.

"Yes yes. Pardon my lateness, I ran into a bit of trouble." Welch says calmly. I look over at my squad everyone looks nervous. We didn't have time away from Welch to talk about a plan, right now its all on me. This is the moment we have been waiting for and I won't blow it by being overeager.

"Shall we get started?" Welch asks cheerfully. "I do believe there is a traitor here." My eyes widen. The other two leaders look at each other. The guards look around ready to fire given the order.

"What are you getting at Tobias?" The blond asks.

"My headquarters was blown to bits along with most of my men, it was in a city hall there is no way the UNSC would have known where it was." Welch turns to me. I raise my rifle. "Rory. Dear boy, I knew from the moment I met you that you were no traitor to the UNSC."

"Is that so."

"Oh it was very clear for me to see, its all in a persons eyes. Your eyes held a large amount of pain but there was always hope there. But now there is no hope for you. I am sorry to use you two like this however I had no men left and I need help killing them." Welch says to the others. "It is goodbye."

I fire first. Welch takes the round through his chest. I fire at the other leaders. Both are dropped before they could react. Conners fires at the blond leaders troops. They don't seem like they were ready for this. I throw a grenade at the group of rebels and they scatter. They return fire, a round his Cody in the arm. Another hits his leg, he falls to the ground. I take cover behind the warthog with Conners and Danielle. The grenade goes off and the is silence. I take a breath , and take a look around. They are all dead. All of them!

"We did it!" I say forgetting about Cody for a second. I run to him and check his pulse. It is strong, but he is out cold.

"Oh did you? You won?" A voice calls out from the balcony above us. "Foolish marines, this is a war you can not possibly win. You may have kill the figure heads of the URF but they had no real power." I look up, my rifle trained in on the voice. He looks like an average person, he doesn't look like the leader of URF.

"Am I suppose to believe some nobody!" I shout.

"Do or don't it matters very little." He says in a very smug voice. "And I would appreicate if you use my name from now on, Dean Matsuiak Ah they have arrived." I look around, but I don't see anything. "You of all people should know that enemies don't always come from the ground."

"ODST?" I ask in shock. He only smiles in return.

"What the hell is going on!" Conners yells.

"We have removed you, so you won't be a problem anymore." Dean laughs arrogantly.

"Whose we?" I shout ready to fire.

"You think it is pure luck the UNSC thinks you are rogue? HA! We are far my advance than your pitiful government thinks. We have man everywhere."

"You bastard! This was all just your plan from the very beginning."

"Yes it was and you play your part perfectly Rory. Now in about one minute you will be dead and we will be free to dismantle the the UNSC."

"Why us?" Danielle questions in a very small voice.

"Unfortunately for you it was only meant for the original members of the famed ODST wolf squad you got transferred at the worst possible time. And it is quite regrettable that a fine young woman like yourself will now die."

"You son of a bitch! I won't stop until I kill you!" I yell anger getting the better of me.

"Rory we have to go now!" Conners grabs my arm and pulls. "Run Rory, I got Cody." I listen and start up the warthog. Cody is thrown in back and the rest mount up.

"Running now will change nothing." Dean laughs. I push the pedal to the floor and we take off.

"There HEVs!" Danielle yells pointing up. I see at least forty drop pods racing out of orbit.

"Shit, Thats a lot of them. We are only a couple minutes away from the ship hopefully we will make it." Conners says as he gets on the mounted gun. The first drop pods hit the ground and ODST jump out. They run after us but it is useless, we are in a warthog they are on their feet.

We get back the ship and load the warthog. Conners runs to the cockpit. "Two minutes and we will be lifting off." I look out of the loading bay's hatch ODST are coming from all over.

"Make it faster we might not have two minutes."

"RPG!" Danielle screams. I close the hatch as the rocket races towards us. The hatch closes at the last possible second and I hear a loud bang off the outer hull. Two more bangs interrupt my thoughts. "We can't take much more of this get us out of here Conners!" she says into the radio.

"Almost there hold on this gonna be rough!" We jolt forward and I lose my feet. The ship makes loud creaking noise. Then the ship's main engines kick in and I am thrown to the back of the loading bay. I slam against the wall and my world goes black.

XxXxXxXx

My eyes crack open and light pours into them, my head pounds in response. I sit up in bed, I look around to see the crew quarters just as they were a few hours ago. Rubbing my face I get up, I notice that I am very stiff, so I limp towards the cockpit. A voice stops me in the mess hall.

"Good you are awake." Danielle says.

"Hey," I whisper.

"Can you tell me what the hell is going on." I see anger in her eyes.

"I know this looks bad but trust me I had nothing to do with this. You heard him they have people in the UNSC working against us."

"So you aren't to blame for any of this!" She yells.

"NO! I just did as I was told. How was I suppose to know that we would be betrayed by the people I risked my life for over and over!" I shout back at her.

"You are our leader!"

"Yeah I know, but I was never right for this position, Jake was always better than me. Jake would know what to do right now." I say my voice fading off. "Listen, We will figure something out trust me just let me think for a minute." She walks away.

"Great, just perfect. We are alone we can't go back to the UNSC or the URF both would probably kill us on sight."


	31. Chapter 31

"I can only see a few options for us. One, we surrender and hope that we don't get charged with high treason and put to death. Two, find that son of a bitch Dean and clear our names." I say sitting in the captains chair on the bridge. The others are all there.

"What about that Captain whats his name, Martin, that gave us this mission?" Conners ask from the pilots seat.

"Too risky. We would have to board with a UNSC destroyer, find him, and make him talk. I don't think that's even possible."

"There is a third option," Danielle says from the doorway. This is the first time she has talked through out the entire meeting, in which I told them everything I know. "We go our separate ways and we just disappear."

"Yeah I'm not doing that." I say firmly. "I will clear my name, I'm not really in-charge anymore so anyone else can do whatever they want but I'm not letting them win."

"I'm with Rory on this one." Conners says. I nod to him.

"Cody?" I ask. He looks at me and then Danielle.

"I guess Im with you, Rory."

"Good, Danielle?" I ask softly. She is quiet for sometime. Our eyes lock and we staring at each other.

"Fine we will do it your way." She breaks eye contact and leaves the bridge. I sigh as she walks away.

"Anyways, I have no idea how to find this guy." I admit.

"If the UNSC doesn't even know he exists its not going to be easy." Cody mutters. I rub my eyes in frustration.

"I don't have a plan yet. But I think its pretty safe to say he won't be on that shit hole of a planet anymore."

"I think we need a vacation." Cody laughs. I breath out heavily.

"I could go for one."

"Aw shit we have company!" Conners yells. "UNSC, two destroyers."

"What! Shit one MAC round will tear us apart, not even mentioning the archer missiles! We have to do a slipspace jump!" I order.

"We might not have time. I charging it up now it will take at least five minutes this boat is a piece of shit. Where are we going!"

"Anywhere hurry!"

"This the UNSC Destroyer Pioneer, respond to out hail or we will open fire." A strong voice tells us through the crackle of the radio. Cody and Conners look at me, I sigh and rub my eyes.

"So much for getting Dean." I mutter. I look towards the radio receiver and grab it.

"Hello Pioneer, this is Curt Eagles captain of the rust bucket, Armstrong. What can we do for you on this fine day," I lie through me teeth. I let go of the receiver. "How much longer Conners!" I say in a rushed whisper.

"Three minutes."

"Captain Eagles, We have reason to believe that your ship was involved in several terrorist acts. Prepare to be boarded and we will sort this all out."

"Those are ridicules accusations! What possible evidence could you have on this ship!" I feign outrage.

"Please sir, don't make this harder than it has to be." See no other option I agree. "A pelican will be there soon sit tight." I throw down the radio.

"Hopefully I bought us enough time, How long?"

"Just another minute, Hold on to something this won't feel good." I strap myself into the captains chair. And say over the ship's intercom.

"Danielle strap in its going to get a little bumpy."

"Open your docking bay now the pelican is waiting." My hand hovers over the controls to the door.

"Punch it Conners!" I shout and grab on to the arm rests on the chair.

"Yes sir!" He types in the last of the controls and we take off. I get slammed back and we rocket forward. "Shit, that was rough." I cough out. I shake my head clear and look to Conners.  
"So where are we headed?" I ask worried. Conners looks at the coordinates he keyed in.

"I'm not really sure. I was just plugging random numbers." He looks confused.

"God damn it. Well they have a tracking device on us that's for sure let's find it. Cody how are you feeling by the way?" Cody is sporting a shoulder brace keeping his arm pinned to his chest and his leg is wrapped up tight.

"Shitty thanks for asking." He says as he limps out of the room. I get up and leave the cockpit. I head to the engineering part of the ship to find the device to pick up electro magnetic signals. I turn it on and points me to the barracks. I follow slowly making sure the signal doesn't change. It leads me right to my duffel bag. I look through it quickly and swear when I find it, my dog tags. I grab the tags, the metal cool in my hands. I sigh as the device goes of the charts. "Bugged my dog tags that's low." I bend the metal until it snaps. I sigh and throw the no broken tracking device to the ground.

XxXxXxXx

"So you're saying the slipspace reactor is busted? We can't leave it slip space until we reach our detestation. And then what will we be able to jump out if there?" I ask Conners. He shakes his head.

"We pushed it to hard it wasn't fully charged. Chances are we will be stuck in deep space with no FTL (Faster than light travel)." Hes face in pale and he as a grim expression on.

"And I broken the tracking device, that is painfully ironic. But, the UNSC would probably shot first anyways so we were die no matter what." Hope leaves me, we are at the end of the line. "Don't suppose anyone knows how to fix the reactor?" The other look around silently. "Luck always runs out eventually." I mutter to myself.

"So whats the plan." Cody asks grimacing in pain. I shake my head.

"Converse food, water, medicine. And pray we aren't to far away from some sort of civilization. Now if you all excuse me I am going to the captain's cabin, Good night." I slowly walk through the empty halls. This is not the way I expected it to end, and out of all the ships that go dark not many are found, even when there is a rescue party.

I reach my new room its empty just a desk and bed. I kick off my boots and sit in the bed. Sleep is tugging on my conciseness. I take my shirt off and lie down on the bed. Its hard as a rock, just another problem on the growing list. I close my eyes and flip the switch next to the bed and the lights go out. Sleep isn't far off and I let it take me.

"Rory!" A voice echos through my body, jarring me up. I'm in the dark my eyes are adjusting to it, there is someone in front of me. "Rory, is this it?" A female voice washes over me it is so familiar. "For all that you have done, you are giving up here in deep space all alone. Disgraced by the UNSC. Discarded by your family. Hunted by your best friend. Will you let it end like this?"

"What can I do!?" I shout. "Its over I can't... there's no way out of this. This isn't a fight with a enemy I can kill, This is nature, I can't kill the laws of physics." The lights turn on and Tori is in front of me. I visible recoil when I see her.

"You were so strong, you help guide me. You helped show me who I really am. And now look at you a broke man, no not man you are still a boy cowering in the dark."

"I guided you to your death, I am not strong, you died because of me. I messed up that mission just like I did this one. Every time I lead people they die. I am not fit for this."

"No," Tori shakes her head. "You didn't kill me, a sniper did nothing you could do. You have to forgive yourself."

"I'm dreaming? I must be. I miss you I guess that's why you are here. I am trying to protect my last strands of sanity." I laugh. Tori's pulls into a frown, and she takes a step back.

"You aren't seeing the real picture." Tori says sadly.

"Said a figment of my imagination." I laugh.

"Damn it Rory! That just like you." She huffs. I shake my head.

"Can you go away this is to painful regardless that it's a dream." I mutter. Her frown deepens.

."I'm not leaving until you figure out what I am trying to tell you." I sigh.

"I get it you, I mean I want me to see that its not over yet and there is hope. But I am sorry I don't see it."

"That's just part of it, Rory you were never to smart." She smiles. I groan. I am insulting myself in my own dreams great.

"Can't you just tell me then?" She laughs lightly while shaking her head. "Guess that would be to easy for me."

"You can figure it out I believe in you." She gives me a warm smile. "I loved you too." She says so quietly if I hadn't seen her lips move I would have thought I was hearing things.

I jerk awake. "What the hell kind of dream was that." The dark is comforting me, so I choose to leave the lights off. I reach in the dark to the bed side table with the intercom on it.  
"This is Rory, who is at the helm."

"Its me boss." Cody says after a minute, I sigh at the nickname.

"Don't call me that. How are we looking down there?" I ask. After another minute he replies again.

"Same as a few hours ago when we left depending on the jump we could be out here for a couple of months."

"I know that Cody." I put the receiver down and lay back in to bed. "Months. Great."

XxXxXxXx

"Rory, the food supplies will last another week even with the ridiculously low amount we are eating. Water supplies are holding up the recycling system is working much better than we expected." Danielle goes through the checklist.

"And Cody?" I ask not waiting to here the answer.

"He is in rough shape. He won't live much longer and even if we had state of the art equipment he would still loss his arm and leg." Cody's wounds never healed up and infect had set in, we have ran out of antibiotics around the third month of the jump. I shake my head, and sit back in the captains chair.

"Well we will all be dead inside two weeks anyways." I laugh, it is very hollow and dark. Danielle nods and leaves the bridge. I scratch the back of my head, Conners lets out a heavy sigh.

"How we looking Conners, is this jump almost done." I ask after a moment of silence.

"Well I haven't any idea." As soon as he says that the ship screams to a halt, normal space opens up right in front of us. I look in disbelief, my mouth hanging open. I blink several times to make sure I'm not seeing things. Conners looks to me and I turn to him. We burst out laughing.

"No way!" I say between laughing fits.

"We are in normal space! Unbelievable." He says in shock. The shock wears out, the gears in my head start turning.

"We aren't out of the woods yet can you get a location?" Conners turns back to the computer and starts typing fast.

"Nah its no good I can't figure this out at all," Conners mutters in anger.

"Guess we can't get that lucky," I pause unsure of what to do next. " Now what?"

"I have no idea, Um we could just you know go in one direction and hope for the best." I shake my head at that idea.

"We have to have some clue to where we are going or we will die." I whisper quickly. My mind is racing, thoughts bouncing back and forth. "How, how can we get out of this. We can't jump again right?" I ask already knowing the answer. Conners nods his head.

"What the hell!" Danielle says from the doorway, Her lips raise at the corners. "We are in normal space!" She has a full smile by this point.

"Yeah doesn't change the fact that we are lost." Conners says as he looks at the computer screen.

"Lost? As in we aren't in known space?" Her breathe is heavy. I nod, the situation is crushing. She leans against the wall of support. "We are going to starve to death?" I can't look her in the eyes.

'You promised to protect everyone.' A female voice says in my head. The voice shocks me and I look around. No one else has heard the voice. I sigh heavily, looking towards Conners I ask if he has any luck.

"Well I can confirm that it will take far long than two weeks to get back to known space. We are so far outside I don't know what to say really." I start to leave the bridge. "Where are you going?" He calls after me.

"Engine room, We have to do something."

XxXxXxXx

I look at the now open hatch of the Slip space engine. Wires everywhere and I am lost.

"Shit." I mutter. The wires seems to go on and on. Looking to my left I see a massive wrench, I sigh as I grab it. "You are going to work you hunk of shit!" I slam the wrench down into the engine sparks fly out and I hit three more times in quick secession. I take a deep breath the outer case of the engine is now dented.

"Conners try it now," I ask hopelessly.

"Hold, my God." I hear him gasp. "What the hell did you do? You know what it doesn't matter just get your ass up here." I look to the wrench than to the engine, I let out a laugh and run back to the bridge.

It doesn't take more than a minute to run through the ship. "Is it really working?" I ask breathless. Conners nods, then looks confused.

"What's with that wrench?" He asks with an odd look on his face.

"I just showed the engine some tough love." He laugh. His face dead pans.

"You idiot that could have killed us all. Regardless we have to jump back to known space."

"Right find the closest place in known space jump there. Then, we well us a distress beacon and someone will save us. That's the plan at least."

XxXxXxXx (One month later.) XxXxXxXx

I look around the Colony we landed at, I thank the Captain of the ship that saved us and take a step forward letting the breeze run through my hair. I let the fresh air rush through my lungs. It feels so good to be out of the ship and on a planet.

We almost didn't make it, in fact one of us didn't. Cody had died from his wounds and there was nothing we could do. We just didn't have the supplies to save him. Another reason to kill Dean and Martin. We were out of food and I was in and out of conciseness when the other ship arrived. They helped us to their next drop off point. We are still in the middle of no where but we are in no danger of dying.

"Rory." Danielle calls out.

"What's up?" I ask as we head through the space port.

"What is our plan?" I turn to look at her and shoot her a devilish grin.

"Kill 'em all."


	32. Chapter 32

The bullets rip over my head. Taking a deep breath I count to three, the bullets stop. I stand and return fire. The thug slums over. A bullet had ripped into his shoulder. I dust off my leather jacket. I walk slowly to him, he is crying out in pain.

"Who is Dean Matusiak?" I yell at him.

"How the hell should I know!" He growls. Anger overwhelms me.

"Tell me what you know or I will kill you!" The anger is all I can feel. Anger is taking control of me.

"I'll never tell you shit!" I kick him on the ground. Over an over again. I stop to take a breath.

"Do you want to talk now?" Silence I put my foot on his wounded shoulder. He cries in pain. Part off me enjoys this, the feeling makes the rest of me sick. I aim my smg at his head. "Do you know how make people I've killed?" I say with a deadly quiet voice. His face goes white.

"I... I... Don't want to die. He is a man, the UNSC took everything from him, family, love, and everything. From what I hear at least I mean they are rumors the guy is a ghost, he is unbelievably good at hiding." His face is twisted in pain.

"Not good enough." I put the barrel of the gun against his head. "Goodbye."

"Wait! He is going to be in New York City, and I know when. During the UNSC war memorial ceremony. They are unveiling a statue to honor all the soldier lost in the covenant war." I smile.

"He plans to attack it?" He nods, I sigh. "When is it?"

"A month from now." I smile at him. Hes face goes pale and he closes his eyes. I pull the smg off his face and he sighs. I kick him in the head and he blacks out.

XxXxXxXx

"Danielle, Conners we are leaving now." I yell as a I walk onto our ship shit can of a ship. The look to each other.

"Do we have a real lead?" I nod.

"I got a thug to confirm what the rest has already told us. NYC in month he is going to attack."

"Setting course for Earth, It will take a week if this ship can even make the jump." Conners jokes.

"Don't even joke I don't ever want to be drifting again." I say with a small smile.

"He has to be suicidal to attack the UNSC supreme headquarters, hell we must be suicidal to be following him there." Danielle says as negative as always. I sigh, and shake my head. Its not even worth arguing again.

"In a month from now we will be free so what does it matter." I say with a fierce determination. She is clearly having doubts but whatever may have been between us is now gone. The mission had gone south and whatever chance to be together went with it.

"Rory are you sure about this I mean there is going to be so much security. Even your luck might not hold out." Conners voices his doubt, I laugh.

"I am going the two of you can do whatever you want, but I am an ODST and I will protect the UNSC from Dean."

XxXxXxXx (One day before the attack) XxXxXxXx

We are all sitting in the bridge, going over the plan. "From what we know he is going to attack with a small group of rebels. He is going to over take the HQ and blow it after downloading a virus that will cripple the UNSC command COMs. Due to the Captain that is provided security being a rebel it won't even be a fair fight. Without COMs rebels from all over are going to attack. This one attack will set off a chain reaction that will break the back of the UNSC. We can not let them take the HQ whatever the cost. No one else can stop them we are it! We few are all that stand between order and chaos, and I won't fail."

"Wow Rory you sure know how to inspire a person. I can't wait to kick some ass!" Conners yells.

I dismiss them and head to my room. I lay down on my bed, letting the tension leave my body. This very well could be it for me, even if we stop Dean which is unlikely we have to deal with the UNSC afterward. Time slips by and before I know it I drift to sleep.

I wake to my alarm and roll out of bed. After taking care of my morning routine I met with Conners.

"Are we in position?"

"Yes sir all we have to do now is wait." He replies. I smile, and clap my hand on his shoulder.

"If shit goes south I just want you to know it was an honor severing with you." He nods his head,

"Hell yeah you too it was never boring with you." I laugh and smile a true smile I can't even remember the last time I actually smiled. He turned on the TV and the news has a special going on about the statue. I take a deep breath.

"Lets suit up shall we?"

XxXxXxXx(Kasey's POV)XxXxXxXx

I barely stop myself yawning security detail its not what I wanted to be doing. I should be finding Rory. But orders are orders. I take a look around, the streets are packed with civvies, and I can even see people in the windows of the buildings. All and all this is a terrible place to try and protect. An attack could from anywhere and things could go bad fast, hell we are understaffed as it is. I mean there should be at least double security hell Admiral Hood is going to be here and everything.

I take notice of a man in the crowd he doesn't seem to be a threat but I can't shake a bad feeling from looking at him. Its probably my imagination. Admiral Hood takes the stage...

XxXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

"There is Admiral Hood taking the stage what a day for this man through all his accomplishments and hardship for him to here is amazing." The news reporter goes on and on.

"Its time to suit up everyone." I get into my equipment in a hurry and get into the makeshift HEV. It was not easy to obtain but it is worth it to have. I listen to the broadcast through my radio.

"And let us never forget the man that have died to give us this day." Hood starts.

"And what of the people left behind by the UNSC!" A voice booms out over the crowd. "The ones you left to die!"

"Now! Launch!" I hit the button to drop.

xXxXxXx(Kasey's POV)XxXxXxXx

The man draws a weapon fast then I can react. The first shot rips through the air. Hood takes it in the chest. My mouth hangs open. People start to scream panic erupts. Reports start yelling that Hood has been shot. I lift my weapon to fire at the man who fired. But I notice that he was not alone more than forty of the crowd pulls weapons. The bullets rip into people, Soldier or child it doesn't matter. I return fire but I feel a bullet graze my arm. I take cover behind a small wall. I take a look around most of the security detail is down. Is this the end? After everything how could this be the end.

"Damn it." I mutter. I see three black dots in the sky. The are getting closer. ODST, I smile and cough. The HEVs hit the ground and the hatchs pop open.

The first on out is in ODST armor with an orange armband, and a cracked visor. "Rory?" I mutter. The crack in the visor is all I need to see. That is Rory no doubt about it, is he here to help the rebels? I wait before I open fire, Rory fires at a rebel taking him down. He aims at another and fires three shots, takes him down. He is moving lightning fast, and fires once more another rebels is down a bullet through the head. Another burst and another rebel down, I have never seen him move this fast and this deadly, I can barely believe this is Rory, he almost seems like a Spartan he's movement is just that fast and deadly.

My cross-hairs line up on Rory, my finger on the trigger. An easy shot and Rory is dead. I have to take the shot for the UNSC. But, he seems like he isn't aiming at anyone but rebels. Could it be that he was set up? No, he is a traitor and he has to be taken out. I fire, but he rolls into cover right before the bullet hits, he still doesn't even notice me, looks like he still has his luck.I can't get a clear shot on him now. "Damn it I almost had him." I rest for a moment behind cover and then look, Rory breaks cover and runs for the HQ, "What could he want in there?" His team sets up covering the main door, I run to the side of the building, there are more than one door in.

xXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

The rebels star to open fire on my group, I yell at them to take cover. A bullet hits right where I was standing a second ago. "Too close," I mutter catching my breathe. I glance out from cover, I can't find Dean. I look behind us, there! He is run for the HQ, I break cover chasing him. My team follows me and I get to the door way of the HQ.

"Cover the door let no one in!" I yell and run inside alone. I enter the main room there is a stair way up to the elevators in the middle of the room. Dean is run for them, I take aim and then lower my gun. I don't have shot. I run after him up the stairs he gets into an elevator. I fire at the closing doors, my bullets hit off the closing doors.

I get to the elevator and slam on the call button. The computer room is on the 90th floor, no way I can run up the stair faster, I laugh humorlessly. The second elevator gets there and I hope in and tap the button for the 90th floor. I tap my foot as the elevator speeds up. It is going to slow for my liking and when it finally opens I rush out.

There is Dean he is typing in a computer. "DEAN!" I yell and raise my rifle.

"You!" He looks at me and growls. "How are you alive still?"

"What can I say I die hard. Looks like your plan is over."

"All I have to do is hit enter and even if I die the plan is compete." he laughs. My finger tightens around the trigger ready to pull. A bang booms through the air. I feel a sharp pain in my back. My breathe gets knocked out of me. I fall to my knees, my rifle hits the ground. I see the sick smile on Dean's face he has won and he knows it. I twist my head to see who hit me. Kasey, he is face is pale and looks sick.

"Kasey, you frigging moron." I say every breath hurts though. Dean pulls a pistol and fires at Kasey the round hits his chest and he falls down. Dean laughs and he starts typing again. It seems he was buffing about just having to hit enter. I fall onto my stomach. I reach for my pistol on my belt. I pull it free, I empty the clip two of the bullets hit Dean in the legs. He gasps and hits the ground. I grit my teeth in pain crawl towards Dean.

"I'll never! I'll never let you win you son of bitch!" I yell. His face is twisted in pain. He struggles to his feet. I too slowly get to my feet the anger inside is fueling me now. I run/stumble towards him. My fist collides into hist mouth. He growls in pain. Stumbling backwards he catches himself and fires a punch at me. He hits me under my right eye. I wince in pain as my pain lances through my back. I gasp in agony, I want to just collapse onto the ground but I can't give up now!

'You can't win Rory!" Dean says through clenched teeth. "I'll just kill you and your friend over there and blame all of this on you!" He swings again he connects and I fall to the ground.

"You bastard." I mutter, blackness starts to claim the edges of my vision. Only one last thing I can think of, the grenade on my belt. I reach for it. "I'll take you to hell! Even if I have to go with you!"

Things slow down, I pull the pin, Dean reacts. I smile I'm going to stop him. Dean looks at me horror in his face. He kicks the grenade, it sails across the room and blows, the blast knocks him to the ground. I jump forward onto him and punch him in the face repeatedly. I don't stop until he goes limp. I roll off him and let out a deep sigh. I close my eyes I stopped Dean once and for all now I can finally rest.


	33. Chapter 33

My world slowly is coming back, I can hear fighting all around, smell blood and gun powder, and feel my back throbbing in pain. I open my eyes and groan. I reach under my back to check my wound. The bullet didn't pierce the armor, the wound isn't a problem it just hurts like hell. Slowly I sit up and look around. Dean is still out cold in front of me, then it hits me, Kasey had gotten shot. I bolt up and run to where he collapsed. I slide over to him and check for his pulse, very faint. I pull out the bio foam and inject it. That should hold him over for now.

Now its time to question Dean. I walk over to him and handcuff him, I slap him across the face a few times to wake him up. He grumbles and opens his eyes.

"You bastard." He growls. "I had them! The UNSC would have been gone!"

"Why!" I shout anger flowing through me.

"They don't have the right to do what they did to the outer colonies. They used them as fodder to slow the Covenant! Billions died, BILLIONS. And no one seemed to care because it wasn't happening to the inner colonies."

"You're wrong, I fought on outer colonies I lost friends there, I made them bled for every inch we gave up," Raging seeps into my words. "I lost so much for everyone! For you!" I cock my fist back, anger is blinding me, I slam my fist into his face. He grunts in pain. "I almost died countless times!" Another punch. "I lost my brothers!" Again, again, for Marc, Zac, Cody, and Jake. "I lost HER!" Tori's face invades my mind. Tears are building up. "I gave up everything," My voice fades. Dean winces and props himself up. He smirks, a dark gleam in his eyes.

"You, ruined it, they took all you had and one day they will take your life." Dean coughs out.

"On that day," I pause for a minute. "I will give it, for the rest of the UNSC." He closes his eyes. "We are the same you realize that." He nods. "The UNSC took everything we had but you don't realize it wasn't them it was the Covenant. I saw first hand. I saw troopers give their lives for citizens, Just to protect them."

"Your lies won't save you, I saw just as much as you. I saw my family taken from me not from Covenant, but UNSC forces."

"What are you talking about?"

"Marines enter my home, Covenant had invaded. They were evacuating the city." I recognize the look in his eyes. Pain. "We were getting our things ready, They said they need a payment for my family to get to the shuttle."

XxXxXxXx (Dean's POV Years ago) XxXxXxXx

"Here we don't have much but I'll give you all of it just to get my wife and kid out of here!" I yell. Another explosion goes off, it was much closer this time. My son's face is twisted in fear, my wife is trying to clam him down. The Marines exchange a glance.

'Well where is it?" I hand him my wallet and the bag that I put the contents of my safe into.

"Just help us please." I beg despair seeping into my voice.

"Well, sorry but we can have you tell anyone about this. Yo, rook you want to be one of us." He tosses him a plasma rifle. The young marine grabs and aim it at my wife and son.

"No!" I jump towards them but I am tackled to the ground by another marine. "NO! Please don't!" I scream struggling to get up. The young marine looks scared. But, a moment later the sound of the rifle firing fulls the air.

"No! You son of a bitch! I'll kill you!" I shout. I push the marine of me and grab his pistol. I fire at the rookie. He falls down dead, I fire at the leader and he stumbles to the ground.

The marine whose pistol I stolen, pushes himself up but I kick him down.

"I told you I'd kill you!" I laugh, it seems like its another person doing this. This can't be me can it? He begs for his live but I just laugh harder. The bullet leaves the gun and enters his head. He drops dead. The only noise left is my laughing.

XxXxXxXx(Rory's POV)XxXxXxXx

I breathe heavy. His story can't be true, how could a group of marines do that?

"I.. I-" He cuts me off.

"If you don't kill me here you know I will destroy your precious UNSC. I won't rest until I do it!"

"I know." I reload my pistol. "I can't let you do this." I level the gun at his head. "In another life we could have been friends." I feel nothing bull pity as I pull the trigger. His body slumps to the ground. I close my eyes, and turn the gun towards my head. "I don't want to live anymore, I should be dead." I say to the empty room, Tori's face again smashes into my thoughts. My head shakes and I sigh. I toss the gun across the room. Removing my helmet, I drop to my knees and put my hands behind my head. Moments later soldiers rush in the room.

"This one is alive, I know him its Kasey," A medic says over Kasey.

"That's that guy that shot Hood."

"And That's Rory Donahue. Jesus Christ, We got him." I smile softly. And close my eyes.


	34. Epilogue

I gasp and sit up fast, another nightmare, I sigh. Things started to move fast after New York. The Captain that set us up confused before killing himself, Conners, Danielle and I were given a choice, Reenlist or walk away. Conners signed up with out a question as did I. People like us have nothing else, Danielle however, left. Kasey, after a hospital stint, also join Conners and I and we now make up the ODST team Blood Knights, the name signifies that we have all lost but we move on for the good of the UNSC.

Everything seems back to normal besides these nightmares. Tori talks to me, always her. I glance around the small room, we are now aboard a brand new UNSC ship bigger than anything before it. The UNSC Infinity.

I lay back down, and close my eyes. Sleep isn't far away. Before I know it I'm looking around a bright room.

"This is a first, two in one night," I mutter.

"That's because you are an idiot and we are running out of time." Tori says flatly. I groan, still insulting myself.

"You know that isn't helpful. I thought was a one time thing back when we were drifting and what you wanted me to now that there was still hope," I look around confused, "There is something else or am I just crazy?"

"Well you aren't crazy at least not because of this. I can't believe you haven't gotten it yet! Its been seven months!" She shouts.

"You know what I've gotten pretty tried of this I haven't got a good night sleep in forever because of this."

"I am not going to stop until you realize it."

"You do know you are dead right? So why don't you stay that way and leave me alone!" Her face twists in pain.

"Says who?" She mutters.

"What?"

"Who says I died?" My eyes grow wide.

I shoot up and look around I'm awake again. I growl and punch the wall.

"What is running out of time?"

XxXxXxX( AN)XxXxXxXx

Its been quite some time since I last updated this, but I have finally figured out where to go next! And I have decide to end the story here and start work on the sequel. I'm going to be better at updating this time around I promise! So be on the look out for my new story.


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